RUSSELS, Feb. 12 — The European Commission proposed detailed new rules today meant to ensure that regulators in the 15 member nations keep careful watch over the business practices of the giant former state telephone monopolies that still dominate on the Continent.
The rules would require national telecommunications regulators, which are often accused of being too cozy with the former monopolies, to scrutinize 18 specific segments of the business to make sure rivals have a fair chance to compete. High-speed Internet access and mobile phone services, both extremely competitive, are included in the segments. The dominant telephone companies, for example, could be asked under the new rules to open their lines to rivals offering cheaper high-speed Internet services.
"Sector-specific intervention is indispensable, in particular for the development of broadband access," said Mario Monti, the union's commissioner for competition, at a news conference announcing the proposal. He said the union's normal competition rules would also apply to the market segments singled out for special scrutiny.
Erkki Liikanen, the commissioner for industry, said the new rules would apply regardless of the technology used to deliver each service. For example, the same rules governing broadband Internet service over telephone lines will also apply to comparable services using alternatives like cable and satellite connections when they are available.
The commissioners said that once it was clear that healthy competition existed in each of the 18 market segments, the sector-specific rules would be lifted.
The rules would oblige national regulatory authorities in each country to make sure that mobile phone operators do not collude to push up the costs of placing and terminating calls, they said. The commission is already investigating roaming charges, applied when a customer places a cellphone call while traveling outside the mobile phone company's home territory.
Unusually, Mr. Monti said today that the rules would hold national regulators accountable if they failed to prevent competition-squelching pricing practices — either artificially high rates that soak consumers or artificially low rates that deter competitors from entering the market.
"The new legal framework will stimulate new investment in communications networks and services, by both new entrants and existing operators," Mr. Liikanen said.
The rules would not cover one communications service — direct text messaging from one mobile phone to another.
ETNO, the trade association for the former telephone monopolies, reacted to the proposed rules with grudging acceptance. "We didn't believe broadband should have been included, because of the high risk and the large investment that new market entails," said Brooks Tigner, a spokesman. "Since broadband is included, we prefer that it is dealt with in a technology-neutral way." For example, he said, in countries like Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark, where cable TV systems are well developed and offer broadband Internet connections and other communications services, the cable operators will also be covered by the new rules.
