ECTA, Jones Day, SPC Network Regulatory Scorecard 2007: Update
ECTA's latest benchmark of 19 European countries shows the lowest prices and highest investment occur where regulators have strong tools to enforce EU pro-competition rules.
The 2007 Regulatory Scorecard shows that the powers and independence of National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) have in many cases been restricted and their ability to enforce rules under the EU Telecoms Framework have been compromised. The independence of the telecoms regulatory system from Government appears to affect the overall ‘regulatory effectiveness’ of countries as measured. In particular, state ownership in telecoms companies seems to be particularly influential in determining overall effectiveness of telecoms regulation. This report, commissioned by the European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA), compares the telecoms regulatory environment and the application of the current legislative Framework in 19 European countries. This year’s results show that countries where regulators have taken action to enable competition to flourish, including the UK, Netherlands and Scandinavian countries, have seen strong performance in their telecoms markets. However, others including Poland, the Czech Republic and Greece have fallen behind, while institutional weaknesses may be preventing Germany, Belgium and Finland from reaching their full potential. The 2007 Scorecard also clearly illustrates that the ability of the regulator to tackle competitive problems can have immediate and tangible consequences for consumers – affecting the price of telecom services, as well as affecting longer term investment in the sector. In particular, in countries where regulators have enforced access to the incumbents’ local loop to open broadband markets to competition, broadband prices are typically the lowest and the broadband speeds the fastest.
