WRITTEN QUESTION No. 564/99 by Roberta ANGELILLI Telecom's monopoly over district telephone calls
Date: 1999-03-12
Institutions: ANGELILLI, European Parliament
Subjects: Italy, competition law, monopoly, telecommunications, telephone, telephone charges

3.12.1999

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 348/99

The Commission specifically raised the environment at the last Community India annual ministerial (Troika)
meeting at New Delhi on 13 November 1998, proposing to organise jointly a Community-India conference on
the environment as a first step towards a ‘new partnership on the environment’.

(1) COM(96) 275 final.

(1999/C 348/124)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0564/99

by Roberta Angelilli (NI) to the Commission

(12 March 1999)

Subject: Telecom’s monopoly over district telephone calls

There appears to be absolutely no justification for the high cost of telephone calls in Italy within a given district
if the destination is more than 30 km away. Making a telephone call from the ‘hinterland’ to a town or city can
cost up to 8 times as much as a normal urban telephone call, whereas this would cost twice as much at the very
most in Germany, slightly over twice as much in Spain and just under four times as much in France.

A call to Rome from Velletri (which is in the Rome province and the same telephone district) costs LIT 535 per
minute, in other words, the same as a call to New York.

Given that Telecom still has a monopoly over calls within a given district, can the Commission state:

1. whether there is any Community legislation governing such matters;

2. whether Telecom’s continuing monopoly over calls of this type, despite the fact that calls between districts

have been liberalized, is unlawful;

3. how it views this matter overall?

Answer given by Mr Van Miert on behalf of the Commission

(19 April 1999)

The abolition of exclusive and special rights on 1 January 1998 did not, in most MemberStates, alter the de
facto monopoly which incumbent operators enjoyed over the provision of local services. The establishment of
local loop infrastructures by new entrants calls for considerable investment and will take many years. In
MemberStates where cable networks exist, these may be used to provide local voice telephony services in
competition with the existing operator. In countries such as Italy, such competition is possible only if the
existing operator is obliged to give its competitors access to its local loop, thus enabling them to offer local
calls on that network. Italian law provides that such access must be given, but the conditions have yet to be laid
down.

The Community directives on the subject require Member States to allow incumbent operators to rebalance
their charges and to ensure that the charges of major operators are based on underlying costs. For several years
now the Commission has pointed out to the Italian authorities that TelecomItalia should be allowed to
rebalance its charges. It was only recently, on 22 December 1998, that the new regulatory authority for
communications allowed Telecom to adjust some of its charges. The authority’s decision also provided for the
introduction of charges for local calls in 1999.

It is not only in Italy that the consumer cannot choose another operator for local calls. Up to now, the
Commission has never challenged this restriction of choice, since where the caller and the person receiving the
call are both served by the incumbent operator, such a service would not be economically justified. However, if
the caller or the person receiving the call is connected to the network of a new entrant, the incumbent operator
cannot justify refusing to offer a choice of operator for local calls.

The Commission will continue to monitor closely the progress of competition in the supply of local
communications and, where necessary, will propose specific measures when revising the present regulatory
framework.