Outlook for innovation and investment in EU telecoms sector positive, says report
The prospects look good for future innovation and investment in the EU telecoms sector, both nationally and cross-border, according to the Commission's latest report on European electronic communications regulation and markets. In the Commission's assessment, published on 20 February, Member States have made good progress in transposing the 2002 EU telecom rules into national law, which is opening up markets to competition. As a result, telecom operators are investing in new technologies in order to cut costs and exploit new opportunities. According to the EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, Viviane Reding: 'The rich economic data of this year's report will allow the Commission to make a solid assessment of the impact of the EU telecom rules of 2002 as a basis for our review of these rules in the course of 2006. 'My objectives in this review process are strengthening investment through infrastructure-based competition, promoting innovation through openness of the rules for new technologies, and completing the single market by making the application of EU rules more consistent across the 25 Member States,' Ms Reding revealed. In particular, the report highlights the rapid take up of broadband Internet connections in Europe, and the rapidly maturing market for mobile voice services, where significant growth is now mainly restricted to the new Member States. In the EU as a whole, mobile phone penetration has reached almost 93 per cent, hitting 100 per cent in eight Member States. A number of EU countries have already transposed virtually all the EU telecom rules into national law, says the report, while the remainder have made substantial progress. 'Increased regulatory certainty has been stimulating cross-border capital investment and mergers/acquisitions [...] and we are seeing the first signs of pan-European expansion strategies,' adds the Commission. While Commissioner Reding welcomed the progress made in opening up national telecoms markets, she stressed that further work was still needed. The report also highlights the need to reduce international roaming charges when using a mobile phone abroad, to raise awareness of Europe's 112 emergency number, and to avoid burdening emerging Internet telephony services with excessive regulation.