Industry welcomes EC attack on leased line tariffs

NEWS The ISP community has welcomed the European Commission's moves to get leased line tariffs reduced. Tim Pearson, chairman of ISPA (Internet Service Providers Association), said the issue of overpricing hasn't been treated seriously before, so the EC has taken an important step by publicly announcing its intention to resolve the situation. Pearson's comments follow European Commissioner Erkki Liikanen's speech at the Telecom 99 conference in Geneva this week. Liikanen said that while deregulation has improved tariffing in most areas, those for leased lines remain unacceptably high, and national regulators must investigate the situation. The Commissioner backed up his statement with figures from an EC report, which indicate that leased line prices in several countries hugely exceed its own recommendations. For example, it suggests that rental prices for short-distance 34Mbps leased line should be between Euro 1,800 to Euro 2,600, but in the UK, BT charges run at around Euro 5,000. The UK has the highest charges, but it is not alone in exceeding the EC's recommendations. France, Ireland, Spain and Sweden are also among the countries with high charges. ISPA's Tim Pearson argues that this is "clearly holding European businesses back". "Everyone would argue that leased lines are expensive in the UK with the sole exception of Oftel and BT," he added. Pearson insisted that the UK also has other areas of concern which Oftel should be told to investigate. For example, the huge difference in charges depending on whether a company is based in London or not. BT and Oftel have so far refused to comment.