Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-vpsfw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-20T09:17:57.784Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Regulatory Reform of European Telecommunications: Past Experience and Forward-Looking Perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Günter Knieps
Günter Knieps
Affiliation:
Prof. Dr. Günter Knieps, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg.
Get access

Extract

A cornerstone for the take-off of the development towards competition in European telecommunications markets was the Commission of the European Communities' British Telecom decision in 1982 and its confirmation by the European Court of Justice in 1985. According to this decision, British Telecom should no longer be permitted to forbid the high-speed forwarding of telex messages between foreign countries by competitive agencies in Great Britain. The procedural setting of this case was most unusual because the Italian government and not British Telecom appealed against the Commission's decision. Moreover, the British government intervened, taking sides not with the Italian government, but with the Commission. The important message of the British Telecom case has been that the Commission of the European Communities is able to apply the Treaty of Rome's competition rules in the European telecommunications administration based on the public law of the different member countries.

Type
Research Article
Information
European Business Organization Law Review (EBOR) , Volume 2 , Issue 3-4 , September 2001 , pp. 641 - 655
Copyright
Copyright © T.M.C. Asser Press and the Authors 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 For a detailed explanation of this case see Schulte-Braucks, , “Das ‘British Telecom’-Urteil: Eckstein für ein europäisches Fernmelderecht?”, 3 Wirtschaft und Wettbewerb (1986) 202–215.Google Scholar

2 COM (87) 290 fin.

3 In addition, the Commission pleaded for a liberalization of the procurement policy of the national telecommunications administrations as well as for an introduction of European-wide telecommunications standards.

4 Only the margin of physical networks (mobile radio and low speed satellite communications) were opened for competition.

5 Gesetz zur Neustrukturierung des Post- und Fernmeldewesens und der Deutschen Bundespost (Poststrukturgesetz) of 8 June 1989, Bundesgesetzblatt Teil I (14 June 1989) 1026-1051.

6 For the telecommunications sector, the Deutsche Telekom AG was founded.

7 COM (94) 440 fin.

8 Commission Directive 96/19/EC of 13 March 1996 amending Directive 90/388/EEC with regard to the implementation of full competition in the telecommunications markets, OJ [1996] L 74/13.

9 See for example section 2 (§§ 17-22) of the new German telecommunications law TKG (of 25 July 1996) as well as the Telekommunikations-Universaldienstleistungsverordnung (of 30 January 1997).

10 The literature on price-cap regulation, in contrast, has developed the concept of rate stability in order to restrain monopoly power (as a substitute for rate of return regulation); e.g. Brennan, , “Regulation by ‘Capping’ Prices”, US Department of Justice, Economic Analysis Group D.P. (1988), EAG 88Google Scholar, 11 September. In this context “social contract” transition methods have been outlined, for example, by Haring, / Kwerel, , “Competition Policy in the Post-Equal Access Market”, Office of Plans and Policy of the Federal Communications Commission, O.P.P. Working Paper 22 (February 1987).Google Scholar

11 We are aware that, from an allocative viewpoint, cost-oriented tariffs would be superior. However, the purpose was to make the efficiency aim of free entry into telecommunications politically acceptable. Therefore redistribution considerations had to be taken into account. Cf. Blankart, / Knieps, , “What Can We Learn From Comparative Institutional Analysis? The Case of Telecommunications”, 42/4 Kyklos (1989) 579–598.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 Kahn, , “The Future of Local Telephone Service: Technology and Public Policy”, Wharton, Fishman-Davidson Center, D.P. No. 22 (1987).Google Scholar

13 Blankart/ Knieps, supra n. 11, 592-594.

14 Council Directive 90/387/EEC of 28 June 1990 on the establishment of the internal market for telecommunications services through the implementation of open network provision, OJ [1990] L 192/1.

15 For an illustrative survey of these developments the reader is referred to European Commission: ONP COMMITTEE Subject: Revision of the ONP Framework Directive ONPCOM 95-31, Brussels (17 July 1995).

16 Similar ONP policies can also be observed in other network industries, e.g. railroads and airlines (e.g. Knieps, , “Competition, coordination and cooperation – A disaggregated approach to transport regulation”, 3/3Utilities Policy (1993) 201–207).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17 Directive 97/33/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 June 1997 on interconnection in telecommunications with regard to ensuring universal service and interoperability through application of the principles of open network provision (ONP), OJ [1997] L 199/32.

18 European Commission, Notice on the application of the competition rules to access agreements in the telecommunications sector (Framework, Relevant Markets and Principles (98/C265/ 02), OJ [1998] C 265/2-28).

19 “Major commercial investments in long-distance optical fibre infrastructure are underway in Europe, and it is expected that several thousand kilometres of optical fibre will become operational by the early part of 2000, linking all major European cities. This massive investment in alternative infrastructure is expected to create for the first time significant competition for the incumbent operators' leased line offers, in particular on their long-distance and cross-border leased line markets. However, new entrants may not be able to provide complete end-to-end leased lines to meet all their customers' needs, and will often have to rely on the incumbent to provide a short-distance leased circuit to link the customers premises to the new entrant's network (a “leased line part circuit”). This is particularly the case for new entrants wishing to serve Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).”, Commission of the European Communities, Commission Recommendation on leased lines interconnection pricing in a liberalised telecommunications market, Brussels, C (1999) 3863, 24.11.1999, at 5.

20 Cf. European Commission, Directorate General XIII ONP COMMITTEE, Subject: The 1999 Review of the Telecommunications Regulatory Framework, ONP COM 98-42, Brussels, 11 September 1998.

21 Proposal for a Directive on a common regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services (COM (2000) 393).

22 Proposal for a Directive on access to, and interconnection of, electronic communications networks and associated facilities (COM (2000) 384).

23 Proposal for a Directive on the authorisation of electronic communications networks and services (COM (2000) 386).

24 Proposal for a Directive on universal service and users' rights relating to electronic communications networks and services (COM (2000) 392).

25 Proposal for a Directive on the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector (COM (2000) 385).

26 Regulation on unbundled access to the local loop (European Parliament and Council 2000/0185 (COD), 5 December 2000).

27 This does not rule out the fact that directives may have direct effect in Member States, provided that the provisions of the directive are sufficiently precise and unconditional.

28 Stigler, , “Barriers to Entry, Economies of Scale, and Firm Size”, in: Stigler, (ed.), The Organization of Industry (Irwin, Homewood, Ill. 1968) 67–70, at p. 67.Google Scholar

29 Cf. Baumol, / Panzar, / Willig, , Contestable Markets and the Theory of Industry Structure (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, San Diego 1982).Google Scholar

30 Cf. Knieps, / Vogelsang, , “The Sustainability Concept under Alternative Behavioral Assumptions”, 13/1 Bell Journal of Economics (1982) 234–241, at p. 239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

31 E.g. Laffont, /Tirole, , Competition in Telecommunications (Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England: MIT Press 2000) ch. 4.Google Scholar

32 E.g. Mandy, ,“Killing the Goose That May Have Laid the Golden Egg: Only the Data Know Whether Sabotage Pays”, 17/2 Journal of Regulatory Economics (2000) 157–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

33 E.g. Stigler, , “The Theory of Economic Regulation”, 2 Bell Journal of Economics (1971) 321Google Scholar; Knieps, , “Costing and Pricing of Interconnection Services in a Liberalized European Telecommunications Market”, in: American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (ed.), Telecommunications Reform in Germany: Lessons and Priorities (Washington D.C. 1998) 51–73.Google Scholar

34 E.g. Knieps, , “Phasing out Sector-specific Regulation in Competitive Telecommunications”, 50/3 Kyklos (1997) 325–339, at p. 331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

35 See also Shankerman, , “Symmetric regulation for competitive telecommunications”, 8 Information Economics and Policy (1996) 3–23, at p. 5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

36 Commission of the European Communities, supra n. 19, p. 1.

37 European Commission, supra n. 18, 2-28.

38 E.g. Beesley, / Littlechild, , “The regulation of privatized monopolies in the United Kingdom”, 20/3Rand Journal of Economics (1989) 454–472.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

39 Engel, / Knieps, , Die Vorschriften des Telekommunikationsgesetzes über den Zugang zu wesentlichen Leistungen: Eine juristisch-ökonomische Untersuchung (Baden-Baden: Nomos 1998).Google Scholar

40 Cf. Distelkamp, , “Möglichkeiten des Wettbewerbs im Orts- und Anschluβbereich des Telekommunikationsnetzes”, WIK Diskussionsbeitrag No. 196 (Bad Honnef 1999) 94.Google Scholar

41 Regulierungsbehörde für Telekommunikation und Post, Jahresbericht 1999, 24.