Research project AM/13/018 (Research action AM)
At present, networked services (telecommunications, electricity...) are undergoing tremendous upheaval, some of it induced by the progressive opening-up of services to competition. This change of context undoubtedly is having repercussions in terms of the sector’s organisation: different service-providers (private or public) are now being induced to respond to the priority needs of users and, in particular, provide - together or separately - a "universal service" specified by the authority. Put another way, functional public service is no longer being provided automatically by organic public service.
Similarly, the nature of the regulation function, as fulfilled by the administrative departments responsible for it, is changing. The competitive context itself assures this function, but only part of it: for operators, competition provides an incentive for a new commercial policy (price, quality...). In other words, the regulation function calls for a re-think. In particular, it is a matter of seeing how universal service provision may be organised : what system should be put in place and what new roles the various actors, including the regulating civil service, will be required to play?
However, the question of universal service provision and regulation - and therefore of the new roles for administrative departments - relates back to the question of the regulatory framework. What is the spread of choices given the European regulatory framework? What are the strongest paths? What rules are being devolved at present to administrative departments that provide or regulate the universal service? What changes to these roles should be expected from the opening-up to competition and the public willingness to organise a universal service in such an environment? These questions are a long way from being settled. In this regard, it is worth looking at the reasoned opinion sent by the European Commission to France, which is the only country to have introduced a system of universal service funding.
OBJECTIVES
The project’s specific contribution is found on various levels. Firstly, we wish to elaborate a theoretical framework and test its relevancy by contrasting it with another network service: electricity. This contrasting of specific sectors is aimed at refining the overall framework for reflection by making it suitable for comparisons that will fuel the reflection itself.
Another contribution made by research is to contrast national experiences. As far as the telecommunications sector is concerned, a comparison between the situations in Belgium and France will be conducted by the CRID. France is actually the only country to have initiated universal service funding. Moreover, the French system has been the subject of a reasoned opinion from the European Commission, which means it makes a great deal of sense to analyse it.
The final contribution of the research involves highly substantive proposals on both the regulatory framework dealing with universal service as well as the new role to be played by the administrative departments in charge of regulating this service. These written proposals will examine chiefly, but not exclusively, the telecommunications sector and be communicated to the research partners: members of ministerial cabinets and members of administrative departments.
Service universel et concurrence : les communications électroniques comme base à une réflexion générale sur le rôle des administrations régulatrices
Feron, Thibaut - Louveaux, Caroline Gent : Academia Press, 2003 (PB5903)
Service universel et concurrence dans les services de réseau: les télécommunications comme base à une réflexion générale : résumé
Bruxelles : SSTC, 2003 (SP1122)
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