The European Commissioner for Competition, Karel van Miert, has written to the incoming Spanish government demanding the immediate liberalization of Spanish telecommunications, according to sources within the European Commission. According to El Pais, the Commissioner is insisting on acceleration of the liberalization process as a condition for approval for the formation of Unisource BV, the venture jointly undertaken by Koninklijke PTT Nederland NV, Telia AB of Sweden, the Swiss PTT and Telefonica de Espana SA. Van Miert has made three demands of Spain; that it should waive the transition period of five years beyond the January 1 1998 deadline, which Spain is theoretically entitled to for the liberalisation of speech telephony; that provision of service on alternative infrastructure – the networks of national railway operator RENFE, Spanish broadcasting corporation RTVE and others – be permitted in order that immediate general access can be offered from July 1 this year, and finally that an independent telecommunications regulatory body be created. Van Miert has also sought confirmation from Holland, Sweden and Switzerland that their alternative networks will be liberalised by July 1. Unless the four countries comply with the Commission’s requests, no permission will be given to allow Unisource to operate. Van Miert is becoming something of a thorn in Telefonica’s side, since a recent European Commission ruling has said that the Spanish carrier should not have been allowed a free cellular operator’s license if its cellular competitor Airtel SA was required to pay a deposit of $680m prior to the award of an operation license. Nor are the Commission’s competition authorities viewing the proposed televsion alliance of Telefonica and Canal+ in Cablevision with very favorable eyes.
