EU commissioner Neelie Kroes has presented her vision for telecoms regulation in the next ten years. The most important announcements concern regulated wholesale access, which was the subject of two consultations by the EC last autumn. In order to reach the EU's Digital Agenda goal of at least half of EU residents able to access broadband at 100Mbps or more by 2020, the EC has been looking at how the regulatory environment can support and stimulate investment in next-generation networks. Kroes said the most important conclusion is that operators need a stable, clear regulatory policy, so they can plan efficient investments.
The regulatory emphasis going forward will be on non-discrimination - allowing all players equal access to networks, new or old. Kroes plans a formal recommendation on this that will require national regulators to benchmark all elements of access to ensure a level playing field. This includes KPIs on areas such as ordering, delivery, fault repair and quality of service. These will be supported by service level agreements and a margin-squeeze test requiring the wholesale access provider to show its retail products compete on the same terms as wholesale customers. Kroes said recourse to functional separation remains a 'last resort' remedy.
A second recommendation will focus on harmonising wholesale access prices across the EU. Kroes has backed away from earlier ideas of cutting prices for wholesale access to existing copper networks in order to stimulate investment in next-generation networks. The emphasis now is on harmonising the cost methodology for setting regulated prices, which Kroes said appear appropriate at the current average of around EUR 9 per line per month.
When it comes to wholesale access to new fibre networks, incumbent operators appear to have won the lobbying. Kroes has proposed to allow pricing not based on costs in some cases, as long as wholesale access is still non-discriminatory and there are signs of significant competition from other types of infrastructure, such as LTE, cable or legacy networks subject to cost-based regulation.
The new policy focus will be outlined in formal recommendations to be presented by Kroes before the end of the year. These are expected to then apply until at least 2020, giving operators regulatory certainty as they plan their network investments.
