We talked with Michael Bartholomew, General Secretary for ETNO, in may 2009, during ETNO Istanbul Conference [1]:
turk-internet.com : Hello Mr. Bartholomew, we want to ask your opinion about what is happening between alternative and in common telecom operators recently, what is happening? What aren’t they sharing?
Michael Bartholomew : Well we have actually in our own group of ETNO we have actually have new entrances as well and obviously our group represents principle investors in Networks and so obviously if you are not an investor but you want access to these Networks that puts you in a different position. And that’s the case in new entrances.
When we target the key issue which is everyone is discussing right now is how do we deploy and build these ultra high speed Networks across Europe, Turkey is definitely in this scope of planning an one of the guidelines, one of the regulations in order to build those and obviously many of the new entrances would like to have these new Networks heavily regulated so that they have Access to them without invest. So that has put us in a fairly conflictual point here.
On the other hand some of the new Networks that have been built so far been actually built by new entrances but on the limited scale. Over all, we would like to see the large operators and the new entrances working together. Because without that we are all serving our customers and the large and small operators have very different fees on regulation and also the current economic crisis at the moment has execrated those differences as well.
ETNO Genel Sekreteri Michael Bartholomew from turk-internet.com on Vimeo.
turk-internet.com : Sure. We are also following the financial situation of in commence companies like British Telecom, and Deutsche Telecom and etc. But do you know alternative telecom operators are telling us some of the investments are old typed you know like copper wires and something. Maybe for NGN “you are right we are right”. I mean they are claiming that you are usually sharing the copper wired old type investments because you know all the countries make these kind of investment while the in commence companies are giving monopoly statements. What are you thinking about that?
Michael Bartholomew : ell, we thought very carefully about this and of course the rules and regulations that were developed for the copper Networks, copper wired Networks. These regulations are no longer suitable for digital age. Okay?
And this is where we have a very different point of view. That if would be tragic error to just take all of the rules and regulations we have now and oppose them for these new Networks. For why? Well these new Networks are as we say NEW.
They have to be built from the scratch. They are estimated to cost 300 billion Euros, which is a large sum of Money. And the new entrances have so far shown no desire to invest in this. They want Access but they don’t want to invest. And so the rules that we have had the extant regulations that intact for old copper Networks which you mentioned were built in a very different time.
The structures of our companies were very different. Now all our companies today are privatized or partially privatized and so the economics are very very different today. It’s not government citers who are going to build these Networks. It is going to be the private investors. And that’s where we come.
turk-internet.com : I see. And maybe, in common companies are telling to reducing nature in peace recently with statements like “We won’t make investments if you regulate us,” and like these. It is showing that kind of things. Yes?
Michael Bartholomew : Well, i think our companies, our member companies, have been very clear as we have all alone maintain. We do not want to get into difficulties with new entrances I mean that’s not we are battlers. What we want to see is that these new Networks are deployed with obviously a minimum of regulation. Why? Because regulation endures investment, regulation kills the innovation.
We have to look at the history and learn from history of our mankind or womankind. All the great inventions and all the big break troughs have been made from the private sector and individuals not by governments.
And that’s why we want to be able to build these new Networks in an environment as free of regulations as possible. We need general rules of the game but when we spend, as we have now 2.5 years, arguing over the regulation of these Networks before they are even built and we still don’t have the regulations then we find ourselves in a very difficult position right now, where there is no new regulation that is been accepted, we don’t want particularly new regulations but it’s all doubt everything.
And the European Parliament and the Councilor Ministers in EU are ducking into an argument over internet rights. And this is held up for entire telecons package of loss. This is what we regret that very much but we want to get going, we’re falling behind. The other parts of the world like The US and Asia are deploying these high-speed Networks. We have fallen very far behind and unless we sort it out right now, I am not talking about 6 months from now because 6 months in this business is a long time. We cannot wait for our politicians wrangle around and we need a green light now.
[1] Turkish translation of this interview can be reach at Bartholomew : Düzenlemelerin Yatırımları Durdurduğu ve Inovasyonu Öldürdüğü Gerçektir
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