Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice President for the Digital Agenda said "We need regulatory consistency in all Member States to ensure a level playing field for telecoms across the whole EU, in which competition and investment can thrive. This will reassure markets that putting money into fibre networks is a safe and profitable investment."

Regulatory consistency is vital to ensure that telecom operators have predictability and regulatory clarity, predominately when considering the large scale investments needed to roll out ultra fast optical fibre based networks.  The commission is looking at these topics for a reason that national telecoms regulators are presently taking diverse approaches when they choose to regulate in these fields.

The commission’s guidance will make sure that operators will be able to buy broadband access products, such as ‘Bitstream’, in a similar way across the EU.

Amended EU telecom rules in force since 25th May 2011 provides the commission new powers to ensure that rules are constantly applied. If the commission discovers that there are discrepancies in the way national regulators implement the telecom rules, which may create a hurdle to the Single Market, the commission may, taking chief account of the opinion of BEREC (the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications).

The commission would seek first opinion from BEREC on the basis of results of consultations, under Article 19 of the Electronic Communications Framework Directive (2002/21/EC), and from the Communications Committee (COCOM), an advisory committee composed of Member State representatives.

Sources:  http://www.enterprise-europe-scotland.com/sct/news/index.asp?newsid=2397  (21/11/2011)