Big Carriers Win an E.U. Victory on Landline Charges
Posted in: Government & Policy at 24/07/2012 20:55
The era of steadily declining phone bills in Europe, which began with deregulation of the industry in 1998, may have drawn to a close this month, with the European Commission's decision to give the biggest operators greater leverage over what they can charge competitors for access to their landline networks.
Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner for telecommunications, signaled the new era July 12 when she announced that further cuts in wholesale access charges, a basic type of regulated fee that operators receive from rivals, would discourage network investment and thwart the commission's goal of creating a superfast broadband grid by 2020.
To continue reading this New York Times report, go to:
www.nytimes.com/2012/07/23/technology/big-carriers-win-an-eu-victory-on-land-line-charges.html
