Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Information Society and Media, is fed up with the incumbent telcos blocking open access to networks. Reding is now considering structural separation (not just functional) to assure new entrants full access to networks. Frustrated by the incumbents’ stonewalling and persistent efforts to prevent competitors from getting adequate access to their networks, the European Union is considering structural separation, in addition to functional separation, in its soon to be revised communications regulatory framework.
Reding wants more power in the hands of the EU to craft a uniform telecoms policy, no doubt to deal with governments like Germany, who still believe in national champions (more like national laggards) like Deutsche Telekom. The EU recently sued the German government over a law that allows DT to exclude competitors from access to the new fiber networks that it is rolling out all over Germany.
Sascha Meinrath did a blog post on this topic a few months ago. Instead of repeating all of the issues, go to post.
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