Europe wants more competition

In its latest report on EU competitive environment, The EU Commission said the telecom market is developing, but that some breaks still prevent it to boom. More competition (including cross-border competition) is THE solution to create a real pan-European market and for that it seems necessary to split networking and services. The result should be easier entrance in the market for alternative service providers. The second proposal is to form a pan-European regulator, mimicking the US FCC, to insure independence from governments and coherence in Europe-wide regulation. Another proposal should be a Europe-wide spectrum management in order to prevent inefficient and fragmented management radio spectrum as to-day. The Commission says that it will address these issues with the reform of the EU Telecom rules, planned for summer this year.

In a similar approach, The European Union wants to create a single EU-wide patent system and a centralized court to handle disputes over inventions. In other terms, to make the European Patent Office (existing since 1978) official and not independent of the EU.