ABSTRACT

A new trend in European telecommunications policy towards more competition has emerged. The important message of the British Telecom case is that the Commission of the European Communities is able to apply the Treaty of Rome's competition rules in the European telecommunications sector too. The Commission has initiated a wide-ranging discussion on the possibilities of completing the common internal market for telecommunications in the European Community. The chapter analyses the deregulation experiences in the telecommunication sectors of the US, Japan and Great Britain in order to evaluate the current telecommunications policy in Europe. The US, Japan and Great Britain are at present the most progressive countries in respect to deregulating telecommunications because entry has become possible not only in the market for terminal equipment and telecommunication services, but also in the area of public networks. Mercury can compete with British Telecom on all levels of telecommunications, including the local networks.