‘Call for pan-EU telecoms body as Brussels regulators’ visions diverge’

Published on 14 August 2013 at 08:44

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A report from Brussels’s Competition commissioner says proposals for a single telecoms market “lack ambition”, and proposes the creation of a pan-European watchdog, reports The Financial Times.

In what the paper calls “unusually frank criticisms” of EU telecoms chief Neelie Kroes’s proposal for a single market, the office of commissioner Joaquín Almunia says replacing national regulators of the 28 member states with a single body would be “the most effective solution to remove national divergences”.

But as The Financial Times observes,

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Such far-reaching industry reforms could be contentious given the desire among some countries in Europe to retain control of national infrastructure and the lucrative revenues often generated by spectrum auctions.

The paper writes that a single market would allow operators to work freely across the bloc, obtain easy access to the spectrum needed for mobile services, and cut roaming charges.

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