European Union's Policy in Telecommunications Essay

European Union's Policy in Telecommunications - Essay Example Thus the EU telecom market has been undergone some revolutionary process, where new players have come to the market along with offering innovative new services, quality products and low prices. Mobile communications, online services, information through the super highway or the internet have revolutionized the continuous growth and use of telecommunication in almost every sphere of the EU region. Telecommunication companies in EU in particular have introduced not only new but also cheaper combined fixed and mobile service packages with alternative pricing formulas and new ways of paying methods (Noam, 1992). Thus these new developments in the telecommunication policy of EU will be crucial to become a part of the modern Information Society. In fact liberalization of telecommunication is the cornerstone of EU's transition, with lowering the price of communicating, encouraging innovation and investment in new services and networks and contributing to improved competitiveness and increased employment. Thus the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) acquired a significant dimension in the coordination efforts of EU in their both the regional and global operations. ICT i s increasingly becoming the world's most important determinant of integration related issues and actions. For instance EU's significance in the internal and external telecommunication strategy in its global operations can be seen with regard to the level of its applications in coordinating inter-country and intra-country operations. The changing telecommunication environment at overseas and operations has such a big impact on the ICT related decision making process in EU.Thus the transition from monopoly to liberalized telecommunication policy in the competitive world would be a very challengeable to the EU commission. In order to have concrete effects, detailed rules are necessary for the EU and also the application of those rules needs to be careful supervised. So the resources had to be focused on scrutinizing the implementation and practical application of the EU regulatory framework in the Member States. The National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) for telecoms have been establis hed in member states of EU and range of tasks has set by the EU regulatory framework in order to grant number of telecom services including - to granting new mobile and fixed network licenses; to approving interconnection prices and agreements; policing prices charged to customers for changing operators, and dealing with the allocation of numbers to new market players. Thus the national competition authorities are also occupied with scrutinizing the new telecoms market. In the 1980's telecommunication policy in the EU was characterized by some public monopolies and run with postal services. Thus it has been revolutionized with the privatization and limited competition in some member countries in EU (Damro, 2000). The development of the telecommunication industry has basically been driven by the increasing application of modern information technology in the telecommunica