EU Internet connections continue to rise, despite slow progress in telecoms liberalisation
More homes in the European Union are connecting to the Internet, but progress aimed to assist this process by completing planned telecommunications liberalisation is still slow, according to the latest report on the area. Discussing the findings of the 'Seventh implementation report on telecoms', EU Commissioner for Information society and Enterprise, Erkki Liikanen, said that certain indicators were encouraging. Incumbents' market share has continued to fall since moves were introduced to open up the telecommunications market, and costs have also fallen, with local and long distance calls falling by 10 per cent and 30 per cent respectively. The number of households connected to the Internet has also risen throughout the EU, with the connected figure standing at 36 per cent in June 2001, compared to 18 per cent in March 2000. But progress has not been consistent across all 15 Member States. Commissioner Liikanen revealed that the actual number of lines that have been unbundled (opened up to non-incumbent competition) stood at just 640,000 and that shared access to the local loop is available in only four Member States. 'Above all our concern is that incumbents are continuing to develop their own DSL [digital subscriber line] services in the absence of effective competition,' said Mr Liikanen. He also mentioned that the spread of tariffs and the difference in supply times found across the Union were 'difficult to justify '. Regulatory authorities need to take an active role in ensuring that unbundling is happening and to do this effectively, they need to set timescales and penalties. The Commissioner will be discussing infringement proceedings at the next meeting of the College of Commissioners, on 20 December. The results of the report were released shortly after an open letter had been sent by executives from telecoms companies to both Commissioner Liikanen and the Commissioner for Competition, Mario Monti, which called for urgent action in enforcing the existing regulations regarding the provision of competitive Internet services. The letter named France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain as countries where operators are not following the rules set out in the regulation governing the unbundling of the local loop. Commissioner Liikanen said he and Mr Monti will provide a joint response to the contents of the letter.