BRUSSELS: The EU presents a radical telecoms industry shake-up tomorrow, aiming to create a single, fully connected European market and remove unpopular mobile phone roaming charges it claims are unjustified.
The plans are controversial, however, and last-minute wrangling over the details led the European Commission yesterday to reschedule a planned announcement today.
“Everything is postponed to Thursday,” Commission spokesman Olivier Bailly said.
Bailly did not give a reason for the delay and downplayed the issue, insisting the Commission package would serve the “general interest” and that the reforms had been worked on for years in Brussels. An EU source said the delay was largely due to the complexity of the issues involved in an “ambitious package.”
The source cited in particular ‘net neutrality’ — the principle that the Internet should be an open system — with companies barred from deals, for example on higher data transmission speeds, which could in practice restrict access by their rivals.
In July, EU anti-trust officials launched probes of several firms suspected of abusing their positions in Internet services, including Orange, Deutsche Telekom and Telefonica.
The headline proposal in the telecoms shake-up is to end roaming charges, the hugely unpopular extra costs incurred when customers use their mobile phones or portable devices while abroad.
EU Digital Agenda Commissioner Nellie Kroes has managed to reduce the levies but her plans to abolish them altogether from 2014 have been knocked back, with 2016 now the Commission’s target date.
AFP
