European Union lawmakers are taking advantage of their powers in the telecoms arena, blocking a proposed regulation in Portugal and questioning proposed regulations in Germany and Italy.
Earlier this month, the European Commission blocked a Portuguese regulation concerning the fixed termination market. Also in August the commission asked the German telecom regulator, BNetzA, to scrap a proposal to set fixed termination rates 300 percent higher than other member states. Fixed termination rates are fees charged by fixed operators to deliver calls from other fixed and mobile networks, which are essentially passed on to consumers and businesses. The commission also announced it would place under review the Italian regulator’s method of calculating broadband service prices.
