A new European Commission report shows that EU telecoms markets have become more competitive thanks to the Commission's guidance in the consultation and review process known as the 'Article 7 procedure', whereby national telecoms regulators inform the Commission in advance of their plans to regulate parts of their national telecoms markets. As a result, citizens and businesses enjoy greater choice of services and cheaper prices.

The Commission has issued a report that shows an improvent in the competition in EU Telecoms Market. However, the report also indicates that a single EU telecoms market is still far from reality. Problems include different national regulatory approaches to tackling competition issues, such as regulating access to fibre networks. The report also warns that regulatory uncertainty could hamper the roll out of investment-intensive infrastructure projects like Next Generation Access (NGA) networks.

The new Commission report issued outlines major trends and issues arising from the Article 7 procedure over the past two years. On the whole, this notification procedure has led to less and better regulation across EU telecoms markets. However national telecoms regulators continue to apply diverging solutions to cases where there are similar competition problems.

As of May 2011, revised EU telecoms rules will give the Commission additional responsibilities for the imposition and implementation of remedies by national regulators.

The Commission is committed to ensure the consistent application of the EU telecoms rules in close cooperation with the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC), and to promote further high speed broadband rollout as foreseen in the Digital Agenda for Europe.

The Commission is currently finalising a Recommendation on regulated access to Next Generation Access (NGA) networks, which builds on the guidance it provided as part of national broadband market reviews. The Commission, with BEREC, is also considering further instructions to telecoms regulators on the consistent implementation of separation commitments and remedies.

The procedure established by Article 7 of Directive 2002/21/EC on a common regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services (the Framework Directive) has been instrumental in identifying areas where the Commission, together with BEREC, needs to act to promote the Single Market for electronic communications.