Phone Card News
ARCEP to Ease Fixed Line Regulations
France's telecoms regulator has announced plans to ease regulation in the country's fixed voice market following the widespread adoption of IP telephony services (essentially VoIP). In a statement, ARCEP said it was submitting to public consultation its plan to deregulate the fixed telephony retail markets and focus on access and interconnection which constitute a long-term bottleneck. "The first cycle of fixed telephony market analyses led us to establish regulation for the 2005-2008 period requiring France Telecom to propose carrier selection offers, wholesale subscriber sales, and to respect pricing obligations on certain of its services," ARCEP said in a statement. "Thanks to changes observed on fixed telephony markets during this first analysis cycle ARCEP can now progressively ease regulation," it continued. The regulator added that its estimates suggest that IP telephony represents about 44% of the total volume of fixed-line calls in 2007, up from 28% in 2006, 12% in 2005 and just 2% in 2004.
Significance: ARCEP's plan to ease regulation is a reflection of the growth of IP telephony services in France. All the major broadband providers in the country have been pushing VoIP as an integral part of their broadband package.
Source:
http://www.communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/105/29328
