Europe’s electronic communications markets are on the upswing but...

e-communications regulatory package. The new legal framework was to have been transposed by July 24, the EC said, but as of Nov. 1 many countries had yet to adopt the directives, which cover the regulatory framework, authorization, access, universal service, e-privacy and competition. On the bright side, it said: (1) The rate of revenue growth in the electronic communications market is expected to reach 3.7-4.7% in 2003. (2) The number of mobile subscribers will rise at a higher rate than in 2002 despite nearly 90% saturation in some countries. Moreover, the EC said, 3rd-generation (3G) services are available now in 4 countries. (3) The number of fixed broadband access lines doubled between July 2002 and July 2003, although new entrants’ market share still is limited. (4) New unbundled lines grew by 828,000 in the same span, but the EC said that still was low as a proportion of total subscriber lines, and development of local loop unbundling is uneven across the European Union (EU). (5) The recent economic downturn has discouraged new fixed operators from entering the voice telephony market. (6) Existing fixed operators appear to be focused on maintaining their positions in the market of international and long distance traffic, with competitive pressure increasingly on the local call segment, where incumbents’ fixed market share has dropped 6% on average since last Dec. (7) Subscribers are turning increasingly to alternative operators for local calls, due in part to the greater availability of carrier preselection. (8) Alternative fixed operators actually competing in the market are concentrating on their core markets. (9) The EU weighted average charge for call termination on fixed networks dropped slightly at local and single transit levels but remained stable for double transit levels. (10) The EU weighted average charge for call termination on mobile networks decreased more than 15% for SMP mobile operators, but still is more than 9 times higher than the average fixed- to-fixed interconnection charge. Lagging legislative action in member states has prompted concerns that, among other things, national regulatory authorities (NRAs) don’t yet have the powers and responsibilities to monitor and deal with competition issues in the e-communications markets, the EC said. The EC began infringement proceedings in Oct. against several countries that failed to adopt the regulatory package on time. The report’s findings were presented to the Telecom Council at its Thurs. meeting.