A dynamic universal service for a heterogenous European Union

Telecommunications Policy

Volumn 22, Issue 10, 1998, Pages 839-852

  Hart, Thomas ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ERLANGEN NUREMBERG   (Germany)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

INFORMATION SERVICES; INTERNET; LAWS AND LEGISLATION; SOCIETIES AND INSTITUTIONS; TECHNOLOGY;

EUROPEAN UNION; UNIVERSAL SERVICE;

TELECOMMUNICATION SERVICES;

EID: 0032208561     PISSN: 03085961     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/S0308-5961(98)00068-8     Document Type: Article

References (27)

1. This article sketches results taken from my forthcoming Perspektiven einer europäischen Politik für Telekommunikation und neue Informationsmedien (Perspectives of a European Policy Framework for Telecommunications and Information). Comments are welcome to the author at thomas.hart@wiso.uni-erlangen.de.
2. In a different context - wondering about the justification for asymmetrical regulation - D. Weisman wrote about companies being forced to run the whole race on the outer lane. Weisman, D. L., Asymmetrical regulation: principles for emerging competition in local service markets, Telecommunications Policy, 1994, 18(7), 503. Something very similar happens here: regulators do not have to run the outer lane, but they are forced to run behind their competitors (being market developments) all through the race - and they are the slower runners in the first place.
3. Blackman gives a hint at how easy life would be without universal service: 'But then isn't the solution fairly simple: let competition rip, rebalance price structures and provide some targeted assistance to those who really need it? Perhaps the solution really is that simple'. Blackman, C. R., Universal service: obligation or opportunity?. Telecommunications Policy, 1995, 19(3), 173.
4. COM(93) 543 and 94/C48/01. For more Details on the relevant Communications see European Commission, Status Report on European Union Telecommunications Policy, 1998 [at http://www.ispo.cec.be/infosoc/legreg/tcstatus.html], chap. II.G.
5. 95/62/EC; 97//EC; 96/19/EC and 97/ 33/EC. The Interconnection directive can be traced back to the Commission's communication on universal service of March 1996; COM(96) 73.
6. COM(94)682, Annex 1.
7. 97/EC, article 7.
8. 97/EC, article 14. The dynamic character of this interpretation is being stressed in the Commission's Communication 'On Services of General Interest', COM(96) 443, par. 29: universal service is a flexible concept, which evolves gradually in line with specific structural and technical features and sector-specific requirements.
9. European Commission, Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, First Monitoring Report on Universal Service in Telecommunications in the European Union, 1998, p. 10.
10. COM(96) 73, Chap. IV.
11. Compaine, B. M. and Weinraub, M. J., Universal access to online services: an examination of the issue. Telecommunications Policy, 1997, 21 (1). Especially p. 22 for the results of their investigation.
12. COM(96) 73, Chap. III.
13. 'Affordability is a matter to be determined at a national level because it is so closely linked to specific national circumstances and national policy objectives (such as regional development policy)'; 97/33/EC, Part II: The Current Concept....
14. E.g. Cherry, B.A., Universal service obligations: comparison of the United States with the European Union. Paper presented at the ITS European Regional Conference, Leuven, Belgium, 29-31 August 1997. p. 14. More detail on the financing of universal services is provided by the Commission's Communication of November 1996: COM(96) 608.
15. See http://europa.eu.int/en/comm/dg04/ lawliber/en/voice.htm for the full text.
16. If you would want to stress the meritorical aspects of the 'Information Society', you could add access to online services in schools, hospitals, public libraries, etc. With the positive externalities caused by the telecommunications infrastructure, the number of teleworkers would also deserve being taken into account. As the indicators mentioned serve as mere examples of the process of the categorization of the European countries (and as the data on these latter indicators is even harder to collect as on the indicators actually used), these will not be utilized here. This can be justified, at least with respect to teleworking, with the fact that teleworking is not an indicator of infrastructure availability, but of usage, on which suppliers of telecommunications services have little influence.
17. Cave, M., Milne, C. and Scanlan, M., Meeting uiversal service obligations in a competitive telecommunications sector, Report to DG IV, CEC, Luxemburg, 1994.
18. Failure rates as used, for example, by the ITU mean the total number of reported network faults per year per 100 main lines; see ITU, Telecommunications Indicators, 1997, Geneva, item 143.
19. As Melody writes: 'Universal service defined simply as access to a working voice telephone line will not be enough if one must have PC access in order to hold a job, and get access to essential public information'. W. H. Melody, Designing regulation for the information age. In: Converging Media? Converging Regulation? ed. R. Collins, London, 1996, p. 48.
20. A Dutch user is equally unable to access a non-existent Dutch host as is a British user. Both have the same set of information available - yet, there is a utility deficit for the Dutch user that derives from the higher relevance he/she puts on Dutch (maybe Dutch language) information.
21. COM(96)73, Chap. III.
22. COM(96)73, Chap. III.
23. See e.g. Blankart, Ch.B. and Knieps, G., Das Konzept der Universaldienste im Bereich der Telekommunikation, Discussion Paper Nr. 8 of the Institut für Verkehrswissenschaft und Regionalpolitik, 1993, Freiburg/Br.;
24. by the same authors: Infrastrukturfonds als Instrumente zur Realisierung politischer Ziele, In: ed. H. Berger, Wettbewerb und Infrastruktur in Post-und Telekommunikationsmärkten, Baden-Baden, 1996, pp. 51-67.
25. Knieps, G., Die Ausgestaltung des zukünftigen Regulierungsrahmens für die Telekommunikation in Deutschland, Discussion Paper Nr. 22 of the Institut für Verkehrswissenschaft und Regionalpolitik, Freiburg/ Br., 1995, especially p. 35ff.
26. Zupan, M. A., The efficacy of franchise bidding schemes in the case of cable television: some systematic evidence. Journal of Law and Economics, 1989, 32 (2), 439 gives a brief summary.
27. However, the obligation and responsibility should remain with the one company that actually gained the license. This 'resale' concept is not in opposition to the Commissions view: ... 'the Community framework does not assume there will be a single universal service provider in a Member State. Indeed, the Commission believes that other operators should be encouraged to take on obligations relating to universal service'; European Commission, 1998, Monitoring Report, op cit. 9, p. 11.