Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-02-19-Speech-2-342"
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"en.20080219.31.2-342"2
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"Mr President, in reply to Mrs Corda, I would point out that we do not interfere with market prices lightly; we usually leave it up to the market to solve such problems. However, if the market is unable to do so, politicians must take account of their responsibilities. This was what we did with voice roaming, and this is what I do not want to do with SMS and data roaming.
This is why – on the basis of my obligation under the regulation on voice roaming, in which Parliament asked me to present an analysis of the situation in 2008 – I have just given the industry fair warning, telling it in no uncertain terms that if it does not bring prices down itself, the regulators, including the European Parliament, will be forced to take action. However, the market must always be given a chance first, and it is only if the market cannot solve the problem that politicians should intervene.
What will happen with the broadband market? I do not know. For the moment, all I know is that here in Europe we have four countries which are world champions in terms of market penetration, streets ahead of Japan and South Korea, and miles ahead of the USA. What we can see is that these are competitive markets, markets where there a number of offers on the table, and the consumer is ultimately free to choose whichever service is the best for him.
This is how a market should operate. Only if the market does not work should we regulate. This is what the national regulators do. To enable them to do so more effectively and practically by moving the Single Market a stage further, since this is Europe’s trump card in a globalised world, I am proposing to reform the law governing the telecoms markets. I am doing this, and Parliament is discussing it at the moment, so that consumers have a real choice.
At the moment there are too many people – and not just individuals but SMEs too – who do not have access to broadband. In future they will not have access, through broadband, to social developments, and I feel this is an unacceptable situation. This is why broadband for all has to be a political objective. It can be achieved if we manage to reform the telecoms market in a way that introduces genuine competition between operators, and therefore choice in the service they want to offer citizens."@en1
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