Easynet warns against telecoms complacency

NEWS

Continued tough regulation of the UK's telecommunications market is essential if the progress made over recent years is not to be lost, according to telecoms operator Easynet. Speaking to ZDNet UK News, Easynet chief executive David Rowe warned of "the danger of complacency". He fears that recent improvements in areas such as broadband may discourage regulators from taking tough action where necessary in the future. According to Rowe, incumbent operators are still so powerful that constant vigilance is needed if competition is to thrive. "It's like a temple in a jungle. If you turn your back the jungle will very quickly grow back, and it is as if the temple was never there," said Rowe, explaining how lax regulation would, he believes, allow the likes of BT to achieve high levels of market dominance, effectively strangling competition. "You always need competition, to keep the incumbent on its toes on issues such as prices and quality of service." Rowe added that many of the successes of 2002, such as the boom in broadband take-up, are due to decisions made several years ago -- and should largely credited to Don Cruikshank, Oftel director-general between 1993 and 1998. "The effect of regulation isn't really seen for three or four years. Much of hard work was done by Cruikshank, and we are now seeing the effects of it. I'm not sure the next regulator [David Edmonds] has been as efficient, and in future will he be less efficient?," said Rowe. Last week, the European Commission published its latest annual report into the EU telecommunications sector. This report concluded that the liberalisation of Europe's telecoms market since 1998 had resulted in a rise in growth and innovation, especially in the mobile sector. The EC also recognised the boom in broadband take-up, but expressed concern that in many countries the incumbent operators are still dominant, especially in the wholesale broadband market. All EU member states have introduced local-loop unbundling (LLU), which allows other operators to install their equipment in local telephone exchanges and compete against the incumbent operator in the wholesale market. However, the EC found that by 1 October 2002 just over 1 million telephone lines had been unbundled across the EC, out of a total of 187 million subscriber lines. Many incumbents have been accused of deliberately obstructing the process so as to maintain their market share, but the EC said the slump in the telecoms sector is the key reason for LLU's failure to make more impact. "Progress in regard to unbundling over the last year has still been slow, and has clearly been affected by the downturn in the telecommunications market and the difficulty for operators in obtaining capital financing for investment purposes," said the EC report. Easynet is one of the few companies still involved with LLU in the UK, and its wholesale ADSL products are proving popular with businesses. However, Rowe said he was concerned that Oftel, and its successor Ofcom, might be outfoxed by BT in the next few years. Ben Verwaayen, BT's chief executive, is keen to create a "one BT" culture within the telco, which had been split into several different operations in recent years. Reports have suggested this could see the closure of BT Ignite and BTopenworld -- which was partially subsumed into BT Retail last week. Such a move, if it helped BT to cut costs, would appear to be beneficial to the whole sector if it helped the firm to lower prices. Rowe, though, has his worries. "Recently, BT has been competing with itself to an extent, which is good for everyone else, but there is a danger in what BT are doing at a group level - creating one BT in which everyone works together," said Rowe. "It could well be sensible for BT, but it could have a big effect in terms of competition and cross-subsidy," he suggested. If such a move was approved by the regulator, Rowe would like to see other measures to keep BT from running away with the market. "The incumbent has everything, so you have to deliberately hamper it in order to create effective competition," he explained.

See the Broadband News Section for the latest on cable modems, ADSL, satellite and other high-speed access technologies, including a comprehensive guide to the best deals out there. Have your say instantly, and see what others have said. Go to the Telecoms forum. Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom.

Post your comment

In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.

You can also log in with Facebook. Log in or create your ZDNet UK account below

By signing up for this service, you indicate that you agree to our Terms and Conditions and have read and understood our Privacy Policy. Questions about membership? Find the answers in the Community FAQ

ZDNet UK Live

How dare film makers, artists or anybody that invests in creativity stop us pirating their works for free. I want to be able to walk into my local...

5 hours ago by JCB33 on ACTA stumbles in Germany

@GrueMaster. I prefer horses for courses rather than one size fits all. I, and I suspect most other computer users, do not really wish to have...

7 hours ago by Moley on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

The product that scares me every time I have to use it is the Office 2007 version of Excel. The first bug that I found was applying the median...

7 hours ago by greycynic on Ten flawed products that derail productivity

Nice review and very informative. One thing I'd like to add (in reply to whs001's 1st question), the main reason to have the same interface from...

8 hours ago by GrueMaster on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

I'be been using Mint 12 since the RC came out, and I am far more happy with the Cinnamon, the Mate, and, yes (with extensions), theGnome 3...

9 hours ago by Frederick Wrigley via Facebook on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Excellent article. One small correction, though--although a fresh installation of Linux Mint 12 will, indeed, provide the user with a version of...

10 hours ago by bdantas on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

In related news, the ISPs club together to get the members of the Home Affairs Select Committee (ya goofed on that part, ZDNet UK) copies of "The...

10 hours ago by Alan Ralph via Facebook on MPs urge ISPs to take down terrorist material

In related news, the ISPs club together to get the members of the Home Affairs Select Committee (ya goofed on that part, ZDNet UK) copies of "The...

10 hours ago by Alan Ralph via Facebook on MPs urge ISPs to take down terrorist material

For Gnome 2 die-hards, it is possible to add icons to the bottom panel (or top top panel, if you prefer) which provide the exact Gnome 2...

11 hours ago by Moley on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Your comments would seem pretty naive and immature. Your 'solution' appears to be, "gee, let's all just give in to the hackers and give them...

11 hours ago by ramwellian on Cloud computing security: no more oxymoron?

"Interesting thought ... If you installed Win7 as a dual boot on a machine that previously only had Linux, and it wrecked your Linux installation,...

12 hours ago by BugStalker on Windows 7 Declares War on GRUB

This is an excellent summary of Ubuntu and Mint and the interface differences between them. Most such articles take a very partisan position for...

12 hours ago by whs001 on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

@ewallace. Not so clear. Anyone can obtain the text, for example from here http://www.ustr.gov/webfm_send/2379. I support ACTA so long as it and...

12 hours ago by Moley on ACTA: Facts, misconceptions and questions

I think WinRT is fantastic. I just wish it was an option for people that didn't want to go through Microsoft's App Store with its attendant...

15 hours ago by 45283 on Why Windows 8 needs architectural hygiene for WOA

Nine people? £30m? Who's back pocket is that lot going in? And IF they say it is for new buildings, what about all the ones the government has...

16 hours ago by Burn-IT on Police set to launch three £30m e-crime hubs

Just to be clear, nobody knows what is in the text of ACTA, here is a photograph of the text of ACTA http://twitpic.com/8h9iju as submitted to the...

16 hours ago by ewallace on ACTA: Facts, misconceptions and questions

Unfortunately main issue is that ASUS is refusing to accept that they make some mistake on this version of asus Transformer prime. 1 - GPS sensor...

17 hours ago by fgvrg56 on Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime Wi-Fi & GPS problems?

@Marcus A fair question. Just talked with Archos which said it was working on an announcement for next week....

18 hours ago by Ben Woods on Archos confirms G9 Ice Cream Sandwich update schedule

Any update on this, considering the claimed "first week of February"?

20 hours ago by Marcus Karlsson via Facebook on Archos confirms G9 Ice Cream Sandwich update schedule

Bill Goodrich : Just as al_langevin pointed out, with Windows Server 2008 there is no Services for Macintosh anymore. It's gone, not available....

1 day ago by apexwm on Windows Server 2008 drops the ball for Mac compatibility

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Easynet warns against telecoms complacency

Daily Newsletters

Topics

Related stories

UK to escape EC telecoms wrath

EC cracks down on local-loop unbundling

UK's broadband boom rockets

Easynet upbeat on local-loop unbundling

Ofcom to make it easier to change broadband service

Post your comment

ZDNet UK Live

Latest in Networking

Ofcom to make it easier to change broadband service

Google set to build backbone of its 1Gbps fibre network

Nicira reveals network virtualisation details

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Test Analyst - Business Intelligence /Data Warehousing

Test Analyst - Business Intelligence /Data Warehousing

Technical MI Manager - 50-60k - Leeds

Inside ZDNet UK

A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

2012 Predictions: VCE FastPath, VI SAN Probe & Hadoop

BlackBerry Bold 9790

Case study: How cloud enables growth

Ten factors that make Ubuntu 11.10 a hit

Toshiba Portégé Z830-10P Review

BT's archive: Pictures from the vault

News & Analysis

Reviews

Blogs

Resources

About Us

Member Services

Special Features

Advertising Features

ZDNet UK / News and Analysis / Infrastructure / Networking

Easynet warns against telecoms complacency

Daily Newsletters

Topics

Related stories

Post your comment

Get ZDNet UK's daily newsletter

Enter your email address to sign up

ZDNet UK Live

Latest in Networking

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Inside ZDNet UK

Resources

About Us

Member Services

Special Features

Advertising Features