Patchy telecoms rules hurt consumers

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM: Poor enforcement of telecommunications rules in the European Union is keeping prices high for businesses and consumers in some EU member states, the European Commission said in a report on Tuesday.

Inconsistent regulations across the 27-nation bloc were responsible for the sharp differences in wholesale and retail prices and were hindering the bloc's single market, the Commission said in its electronic communications market report.

"Consumers and business still face 27 fragmented national markets. National telecoms regulators often delay, sometimes by years, the enforcement of EU rules," the EU executive said in its annual report on the sector.

The Commission said retail mobile prices in the most expensive countries are four times higher than in the cheapest, for example, 4 euro cents per minute in Latvia compared with 24 euro cents in Malta, the Commission said.

This situation is partly due to different regulatory approaches across the EU, it said.

Although Europe's telecoms sector weathered the financial storm in 2009, witnessing a zero percent growth compared with a -4.2 percent EU-wide economic decline, clear enforcement of existing rules and investment in innovative services hold the key to future growth, the Commission said.

"Rapid growth of mobile broadband and more affordable internet access are good news for consumers in these tough economic times. Yet the limited progress towards a true Single Market is disappointing," EU Telecoms Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a statement.

It added that meticulous application of EU telecoms rules was needed to speed the roll-out of investment-intensive infrastructure such as Next Generation Access (NGA) networks which are expected to be deployed within the next 5 to 10 years.

The Commission urged EU states to do more to ensure that telecoms rules are implemented and that necessary investments in innovative services are made.