These days, it's never been quite as easy to get in touch with other people. Between the growing number of platforms and the ever-increasing differences within the platforms, making a connection between the person at point A and the person at point B is comparatively simple. With this in mind, new reports from Gigaom suggest that the European Commission now believes there's enough room in the fixed-line telephony market to start some deregulation, but some believe that this move is somewhat premature.
The European Commission changed several of its key rules in terms of regulating the fixed telephony marketing throughout Europe, due largely to the state of the market as a whole. Markets around fiber access were also altered, but the markets for fixed and mobile call termination rates are set to remain the same. One of the biggest changes is set to arrive in what's called “virtual unbundling,” referring to practices that started up back around the end of the last millennium, when major national monopolies were being shattered. Essentially, it opened up the field to new carriers by allowing new entrants in the market to install said carriers' equipment right into the telephone exchanges of the major monopolies. This meant that new firms could get in the market more readily, and incumbent businesses needed to split into retail and infrastructure firms to get access. With the rise of fiber access, meanwhile, this was supposed to happen once again, but often didn't, as virtual unbundling rose up, but the “last mile”--the connection between customer premises and certain points of infrastructure—wasn't included in these terms. Competitors could access poles and ducts, and Ofcom, the British national regulator for such things, generally approved. Now, such virtual unbundling is getting what looks to be a green light across much of Europe, and competitors will need to handle the last mile connections.
This was done mostly because, according to reports, there were sufficient competing services in place—not to mention complementary services—to take some of the hands off the market. Between the number of fixed-line telephony firms in place, and the number of mobile firms in operation, deregulation made a note of sense.
Indeed, the European Commission specifically noted that with the rise of mobile calling, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) and other IP-based communications, there were more than enough options in the market to exercise. But some believe that this measure is premature, and that now, infrastructure owners will have the ability to “drown out” competitors by alteration of the wholesale telephony price structure.
There's always a certain amount of concern whenever deregulation sets in, but in this case, it might be a bit much ado over nothing, to borrow the Shakespeare. After all, what the European Commission pointed out is quite clearly the case; should fixed-line telephony providers overstep bounds in terms of market pricing, there will be several alternatives on hand. It's hard to be concerned about monopoly action when there's such a surfeit of complementary goods and services around, and in this market, few are really wanting for choice.
Still, only time will tell if this was indeed the proper action to take, and if it turns out to have been less than optimal, well, one action can always undo another. There will be plenty of time to change course if this doesn't work, and it's generally good to keep a hands-off policy running as much as possible to help free up business operations.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson