Fitch: Uncertainty Remains In Euro Telecoms

Fitch Ratings says in a new report that regulation of the European telecommunications sector is disparate due to the different domestic infrastructures and market participants in each country.

"Despite the efforts of the European Union regulators to provide a uniform framework the pace of competition varies significantly from country to country," says Mike Dunning, Managing Director at Fitch's Telecoms team. "This is largely due to factors such as political involvement as well as the sanctioning power of the local regulator."

The report reviews the current trends in telecommunications regulation in the European Union and their likely impact on the credit risk profiles of the operators in selected countries. In the report Fitch identifies the importance of next generation network ("NGN") investment over the next five years, in particular the potential for this investment to change the shape of the "access" networks across Europe.

"Regulators still have a lot of work to do to define and enforce evolving regulatory obligations as a result of this NGN investment, as many alternative telecommunications operators have to date based their operations on regulated wholesale access to the incumbents' network," adds Mr. Dunning."

Posted to the site on 13th April 2007