The EU's media commissioner Viviane Reding has called for sweeping changes to the way telecom services within Europe are governed. Speaking at a conference in Brussels, she said there was a need for a new European telecoms regulator to be created to work alongside national authorities. This report from Theo Leggett:
The past two decades have seen huge changes in the way the telecom sector in Europe operates. Liberalisation has allowed large numbers of new operators into the market to challenge the dominance of former national monopolies.
But the Commission believes that rules designed to promote competition are applied in a haphazard fashion because each member state has its own telecoms regulator. So it's proposing to create a new European regulator to coordinate the work of the national authorities.
It's also planning to set up a central agency to allocate radio spectrum frequencies. Such frequencies can be extremely valuable to companies which provide wireless services such as mobile phone networks or satellite navigation systems. But because they're provided by national authorities in each country, it can prove difficult for those businesses to get access to the spectrum they need.
But analysts say national governments may prove highly reluctant to surrender control of their radio frequencies to Brussels.
telecom
short for telecommunication, i.e. communication over a distance by cable, telegraph, telephone or broadcasting
Liberalisation
making more open and free
dominance
control, authority, being the most influential
monopolies
people or companies that have total control of the trade in a commodity or service
to promote
to encourage and support
in a haphazard fashion
in an illogical or disorganised way, by chance
to set up
to establish, to create
wireless
radio, capable of transmitting data without being plugged in
reluctant
not willing, hesitant
surrender
hand over, get rid of, give into another's control
