Rather than waiting for the European Telecommunications Standards Association to publish rules for pan-European approval of network equipment, 3Com Corp is planning to force the issue, chief executive Eric Benhamou told Computergram’s representative at International Data Corp’s European IT Forum in Rome: the rule that once a piece of equipment was approved for any one European Community country it was approved for the entire Community is enshrined in the Maastricht Treaty, but as with most features of that misbegotten document, nothing has actually happened; 3Com is seeking approval for its ISDN routers in the Netherlands, and when they are approved, it will stick a European Union seal on it and challenge any PTT that refuses to recognise it – and 3Com has retained a Brussels-based law firm to fight its corner – just in case.
