Commissioner says forcing large firms to reduce the amount they charge for using networks would not help push for high-speed broadband.
Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner for the digital agenda, has ruled out bringing in regulation to force down the price that telecoms companies charge for access to their copper networks.
In a move that was welcomed by Europe’s biggest telecoms firms, Kroes said she had concluded that lowering the charges would not encourage investment in high-speed broadband infrastructure.
Smaller telecoms companies that do not have their own network infrastructure and have to pay the incumbent firms for access have long said that driving down charges was the only way to make companies invest in fibre-optic cabling.
“After examining all the evidence, and given the significant competitive relationship between copper and NGA [next-generation access, fibre] networks, we are not convinced that a phased decrease in copper prices would spur NGA investment,” Kroes said today.
“Indeed, we now see fibre investment progressing relatively well in some member states where copper prices are around or above the EU average.”
Incumbent companies, such as Deutsche Telekom and Telefónica, had protested that rather than encouraging them to invest in fibre networks, forcing down copper prices would instead hit their profits and have the opposite effect.
Luigi Gambardella, the chairman of the European Telecommunications Network Operators association (ETNO), which generally represents incumbent companies, said that today’s decision would help “end a long period of uncertainty in the sector”.
He added: “Investors need a stable regulatory framework and today’s announcements by [European Commission] Vice-President Kroes is an important step towards building investor trust, giving valuable guidance in the light of the European Commission growth strategy for 2020.”
Kroes outlined steps she would be taking in the near future, including introducing stricter rules to ensure that companies do not discriminate against competitors and a recommendation on copper access charging “to promote consistency and stability in Europe”.
“Gradual [price] convergence should be possible,” she said.
Tom Ruhan, the chairman of the European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA), which represents mostly new entrants, said he “deeply regretted” Kroes’s approach.
“As a result of this approach incumbents will not only be allowed to regain full monopolies on future networks, they will also be allowed to continue overcharging consumers and starving competitors on existing networks,” he said.