At a meeting with top officials of the Italian regulatory authority for telecommunications, Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding was determined to introduce functional separation as a "last-resort remedy" in telecoms liberalisation.
Functional Separation: Reding reaffirmed her conviction that "national telecoms regulators should be given this tool that can promote both competition and investment". She stressed, however, that the disputed splitting-up of telecoms incumbents should be applied only as a "last-resort remedy to address the stubborn cases where other remedies have failed".
She added: "It is the responsibility of legislators both at European and at national level to ensure that, in the interest of legal certainty, there is a sound legal basis for applying functional separation. To enable regulators to do their job properly, legislators will need in particular to define clearly the required elements of this remedy and the conditions under which it may be used by an independent telecoms regulator."
ERG President Calabrò said: "We are convinced that functional separation, given the peculiarities of the Italian market, could be a win-win solution as has been the case in the UK market," where the incumbent, BT, was forced to create a separate company, Openreach, to operate the network business. Calabrò went on to say: "We have started an intense discussion with Telecom Italia and initiated a public consultation on the subject. We are ready to go further on this route and I am confident that the Italian Parliament will soon approve legislation giving AGCOM powers to apply functional separation."