EU spokesman savages self-serving Ofcom

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 31 Oct 2007 at 16:33

The European Union has issued a scathing response to Ofcom's criticism of its plans to create a central European telecoms regulator.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Ofcom chief executive, Ed Richards, said the UK watchdog was wary of European telecoms reforms which he suggested were liable to undermine its position.

However, in a strongly worded response an EU spokesperson for telecoms Commissioner, Viviane Reding, "wondered what Mr Richards is talking about."

"We note with satisfaction that the chief of the UK telecom regulator agrees with 80% of the forthcoming EU telecom reform that the Commission will table on 13 November," the response says.

"These are interestingly enough the elements where the UK regulatory model is already in line with the Commission proposals. We further note that Mr Richards takes position against a central European telecoms regulator.

"First of all, Mr Richards does not need to worry: no body in the Commission plans to question the existence of Ofcom, the British telecom regulator with its 800 employees. Nor that of the German network regulator with its 2,400 employees."

"What the Commission wants to do is make sure that the 27 national telecom regulators work more in harmony, avoid protectionism and distorting competition, especially in market segments where pan-European operators are active and offer trans-national communication services."

After warming up, the statement swiftly moves past the pleasantries.

"Just think about international mobile roaming. National telecom regulators had this market in their mandate since 2003! But all that they did for years was to protect the revenue of mobile operators. We remember only too well that the British regulator Ofcom was the first in line to lobby very proactively in the European Parliament against the 'Commission proposal to reduce consumer prices' - with position papers which had a lot in common with the position papers of British mobile operators."

"Also there, the main argument was to avoid a 'central' approach and to respect national differences - even though consumers were exactly interested in eliminating national differences on their phone bills," it adds.

"Yes, we agree with Mr Richards that national regulators need to be more independent and more accountable. The time where national telecom regulators, on instruction from their governments, defended the very sector they were supposed to regulate, must be over."

We await Ofcom's response.