In 2003, the European Commission issued a recommendation on product and service markets within the electronic communications sector, where it believes National Regulatory Agencies should continue to impose regulatory obligations.
The EC recommendation identifies a total of 18 markets in the electronic communications sector. These markets exhibit material structural competition issues, which the Commission does not believe can be resolved by competition law alone. These are markets where:
- There are high non-temporary barriers to entry (either structural or legal [1].
- The market structure does not tend towards effective competition within a relevant time horizon, and/or
- Application of competition law alone would not adequately address the market failures concerned.
Markets identified by the EC as needing sector-specific regulation
The 18 markets identified by the Commission, for which competition law alone is not sufficient, are:
1) Fixed network access by residential customers
2) Fixed network access by non-residential customers
3) Local and national telephone services through fixed network for residential customers
4) International service through fixed network for residential customers
5) Local and national telephone services through fixed network for non-residential customers
6) International service through fixed network for non-residential customers
7) The minimum set of leased lines
8) Call origination on the fixed network
9) Call termination on the fixed network
10) Transit services in the fixed network
11) Wholesale unbundled access to metallic loops and sub-loops for broadband and voice services
12) Wholesale broadband access
13) Wholesale terminating segments of leased lines
14) Wholesale trunk segments of leased lines
15) Access and call origination on mobile networks
16) Voice call termination on mobile networks
17) Wholesale national market for international roaming on mobile networks
18) Broadcasting transmission services, to deliver broadcast content to end-users.
Endnotes:
[1] Structural barriers to entry are factors about the nature of the market which make it difficult for a competitor to enter, such as economies of scale, economies of scope, or high sunk costs. Legal or regulatory barriers are not based on economic conditions, but result from laws, administrative or other state measures that affect the conditions of entry and/or position of operators in their relevant markets.
References
Consolidated Version of the Treaty Establishing the European Community, Article 82
Commission guidelines on market analysis and the assessment of significant market power under the Community regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services
Directive 2002/21/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on a common regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services.