The telecoms single market– time to refocus on real cross-border bottlenecks

Brussels, 26 June 2013: Key players and regulators of the telecoms sector met yesterday under the auspices of ECTA to discuss the challenges of building a truly single market for telecoms in the EU.

With a high level panel of speakers, including Vice-President Neelie Kroes, the ECTA Conference addressed pressing issues related to the telecoms single market initiative, including broadband investments, business strategies, the review of the list of relevant markets and the need for a harmonised spectrum policy. 

                                                      

Brussels, 22 January 2013: The economic loss of a fragmented market for electronic communication services for businesses amounts to 90 billion according to a thorough analysis released today by WIK Consult. The study concludes that a regulatory action from the European Union is needed in order to tap the full potential of the Digital Single Market for businesses and productivity.

ECTA CEOs meet Vice President Neelie Kroes

Competition in telecoms is key to unlock Europe’s investment and growth potential 

Brussels, 27 November 2012: Today a delegation of CEOs from the member companies of the European Competitive Telecoms Association (ECTA) met with the European Commission’s Vice-President Neelie Kroes to urge her to ensure a fair balance between investment incentives for dominant operators and pro-competitive measures fostering challengers’ investments and the growth of the sector.

A stable policy framework for maximising investment and consumer benefits: Vice President Neelie Kroes meets ECTA Financial Chiefs  

Brussels, 22 October 2012: Today a delegation of the Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) from the member companies of the European Competitive Telecom Operators (ECTA) met with the European Commission’s Vice-President Neelie Kroes, to discuss the important role that the challengers of dominant firms play in driving future high-speed broadband investments.

Connecting Europe Facility – The EU must not "cut” the ambition to play an important role in fostering the deployment of future-proof, open and competitive fibre networks  

Brussels, 11 October 2012: As talks between EU Member States and EU institutions on the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020 intensify, there are increasing concerns that funding to support ambitious investments in communications infrastructure may fail to be considered as a major priority.

Vice-President Kroes turns her back on competitioni    
 

Brussels, 12 July 2012: Today, the Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes has announced her willingness to allow regulatory holidays for Next Generation Networks and to continue costly access conditions for legacy networks. The package of measures fortunately will also strengthen the non-discrimination obligations in electronic communications.ECTA, the pan-European industry association representing over 100 pro-competitive telecoms operators welcomes the steps Mrs Kroes has announced to counter some of the abusive behaviors that incumbent operators put in place to resist competition. However, the direction that Mrs Kroes said to be willing to take on pricing of copper-based legacy networks and on fibre-based Next Generation Networks will harm the competitive conditions of the broadband markets and will eventually harm consumer interests without fostering investments.

ECTA and TU Delft sign an academic cooperation agreement for enhanced research in the Telecom Sector

Brussels, 23 April 2012

ECTA - the European Competitive Telecommunications Association – has today entered into an academic cooperation agreement with TU Delft, the leading University of Technology, to support independent enhanced research in telecom markets.

TU Delft’s team of researchers led by Dr.Ir. Wolter Lemstra has agreed to develop research for an initial period of 15 month on the dynamics of telecom markets in Europe and on policy measures to support Europe’s target to achieve widespread coverage and take-up of superfast broadband by 2020. TU Delft has previously worked on a number of projects for the European Commission, including a recent report on Steps towards a truly Internal Market for e-communications.

Lack of effective access to fibre networks may impact competition in high speed broadband, study finds1

Brussels, 6 March 2012: A new report carried out by the research and consulting group WIK on the state of play of Next Generation Access (NGA) has found that the target set by Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes for 50% of households to use ultra-fast broadband by 2020 may be at risk because fibre networks have not been effectively opened to competition.

Brussels, 29 November 2011

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am delighted to welcome you to ECTA’s annual regulatory conference. It means a lot in this time of economic crisis, when Governments, companies and consumers have been focusing on making it through each day, that you have chosen to join us for a debate on the future of telecoms.  It is also significant that political leaders chose to highlight the digital economy when they met in October to discuss the financial crisis in Europe. Our sector is an important part of the answer to the global economic crisis. That is because telecoms has the power to change our way of doing business, and how we interact with each other. I hope that the debate over the next two days will help to identify the actions that we can all take – as operators, policy-makers and financiers – to drive the sector forwards and unleash its potential to deliver investment and innovation that in turn will drive growth in Europe and beyond.

ECTA calls on Commission’s Vice-President Kroes to end unfair subsidies for incumbent telcos

"Consumers and competitors should not have to pay excessive charges to dominant firms that are not investing in Europe”, says ECTA Chairman Tom Ruhan
 
Brussels, 28 November 2011: CEOs of major telecoms competitors have called on Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes to put an end to excessive charges for historic telephone networks, which they say amount to a subsidy for dominant firms. In a meeting with the Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, CEOs emphasised that there was no justification for paying more than the real cost of copper networks, when incumbents are failing to invest in new high speed infrastructure. An April 2011 study by consulting group WIK, found that the level of wholesale charges in some countries could be as much as double the amount that it actually cost incumbent operators to build the networks decades ago.