Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-02-07-Speech-4-228"
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"en.20020207.13.4-228"2
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".
My special thanks to the honourable Member; this is indeed an exceptional issue which is a top priority not just in the European Parliament and the Commission but in each individual portfolio, because an electronic Europe is at the top of everyone's agenda.
The summit in Lisbon called for cheap, high-speed networks for accessing the Internet. For reasons which you yourself explained, this is the cornerstone of a European knowledge-based economy, the cornerstone of policy for a Europe of justice, equality and inclusion. As you state in your question, Internet access charges are an important factor. There is the matter of flat-rate charges for access – as you quite rightly said, there is a problem of terminology and how to translate terms into all the languages and I have to say here that there were words which I recognised in English but not in Greek – so, flat-rate charges for access based on flat-rate connections by Internet service providers and the new telecommunications companies which have taken over the networks of the former monopolies.
The national regulations of four Member States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Spain and France require the former monopolies to provide all market factors with flat-rate Internet access. This is known as the FRIACO principle, which means Flat Rate Internet Access Call Origination. This service will soon be up and running in Italy too.
The industry maintains that FRIACO results in increased use of the Internet and, because there are no time charges, users spend more time on the Internet and become Internet literate. It also maintains that, with all these FRIACO services, consumer demand for broadband access and services is increasing.
The Commission welcomes the decisions by the regulatory authorities in the Member States which I referred to earlier and encourages the use of this model in the other Member States. The Commission's support and encouragement take the following forms: first in the open network provision committee, the forum chaired by the European Union, in which the regulatory authorities and the ministries of the Member States are represented in their advisory and regulatory capacity. This issue will again be on the agenda of the open network provision committee at its meeting on 20 February 2002. Secondly, in the seventh publication on the application of the package of regulatory arrangements in the telecommunications sector which it submitted to the European Parliament and the Council in December 2001 and in which it specifically supports flat-rate narrowband Internet access as a gateway to broadband access.
Similarly, as you too mentioned, binding decisions have been taken within the wider context of the continuing implementation of the e-Europe action plan. The Commission is also making sure the regulation on unbundling local loops is applied correctly. Unbundled access to local loops allows newcomers to compete with established service providers by providing high-speed data transmission services and constant Internet access using digital subscriber line technology.
The Commission also referred to this aspect of high-speed Internet access in its seventh publication, together with the provision of equal access to high-speed Internet access services retailed by established service providers. The Commission is also encouraging guaranteed fair and equal terms for the provision of short leased lines which take costs into account. These are another form of access to the Internet and are important mainly to small companies and companies using the data services of newcomers to the telecommunications market.
So the Commission is clearly operating at two levels. On one level it is backing specific cooperation policies and the use of models which are already a success, and I have said how, and on the other level it is monitoring the application of binding decision such as regulations which, of course, play a very important role.
As far as disseminating and consolidating broadband technology is concerned, the Commission acknowledges in its report to the European Council in Barcelona that this technology is not at present being provided and used by the Member States as quickly as we would expect. This being so, the Commission has proposed to the European Council that it set a target date of 2005 for the provision of broadband technology throughout the European Union."@en1
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