Aphaia’s Chief Consultant Boštjan Makarovič commented on the European Commission’s plans to harmonize European telecoms prices for the Slovene newspaper Delo. Such harmonisation could have as a consequence a lack of investment and the downfall of small operators, agrees Makarovič.
The EU Digital Agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes is planning to introduce concrete proposals on how to improve the European telecommunications market in September of this year, in preparation for which a price comparison of telecoms services across EU Member States was published, writes Delo’s Matjaž Ropret. The comparison revealed significant price differences in different Member States.
In the article Boštjan Makarovič warns that
The price differences are a consequence of both the competition on the market as well as the costs in an individual Member State. Especially the former could be more positively influenced by the European Commission in the role of a sort-of regulator. Unfortunately, as of late instant solutions appealing to users of lowering wholesale prices are being sought, and not measures of increasing infrastructural investment, an area where the EU is already significantly falling behind the most successful countries, or measures of increasing service competition, where the EU is lately beginning to regress.
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