CEOs from some of Europe’s largest operators have voiced concerns over the European Commission’s recent proposals to regulate next-generation network rollout. According to a Financial Times report, both Stéphane Richard, chief executive of Orange/France Telecom, and Telecom Italia CEO Franco Bernabè spoke out against the proposals at an event organised by the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association in Brussels this week. Richard said he was “not fully comfortable” with proposed regulations that former incumbent operators should provide competitors with cheap access to their infrastructure, which he said could dissuade dominant operators from making large-scale investments. “If the underlying philosophy of the European Commission is to look at networks like a commodity, or a utility… [next-generation Internet] is not the best investment case we can offer our shareholders,” warned Richard. His fears were shared by Bernabè, who added that the regulations risked turning European networks into “dumb pipes” with little opportunity to profit from web applications. Zeinal Bava, head of Portugal Telecom, also waded in saying the new competitions laws did not strike “the right balance.”

The large European operators have argued that the regulations forcing them to open up networks – which are already in place for legacy copper-based networks – should not apply to next generation fibre-based networks, which they estimate will cost around EUR300 billion to build. “All investing companies have my strong support in this transition to fibre,” countered Neelie Kroes, the EU’s telecoms commissioner who oversaw the latest proposals, noting that “our approach is consistent with attractive returns on capital for telecoms companies.” But she ruled out the possibility of “regulatory holidays” for operators that would allow them to set their own fees for wholesale access.