In Europe, a push for higher fees for phone

BERLIN - if the rules of European telecommunications authorities have tinkered, usually it was to lower prices for consumers, whether in retail price controls on mobile roaming fees or mandatory cuts regulated interconnection fees.

But in this year to promote further investments in high speed broadband networks, regulatory authorities consider that help increase a major source of income for most operators: they get the rent from competitors to lease that their landline grid.

The architect of the plan, Neelie Kroes, EU Commissioner has digital agenda the increases as part of a larger package pitched stimulate spending while maintaining competition and consumer choice.

However, the plan has operators alarmed, could, as the British mobile operator Vodafone the higher fees to pay. Vittorio Colao, Chief Executive of Vodafone, said that the plan put together by former monopoly, BT, Deutsche Telekom, France Télécom, KPN, Telecom Italia and Telef?nica, including fees increase to "re monopolization" could result in the company.

Mr Colao said that he was worried that fixed-line operator would use extra income to reduce their prices and trying to squeeze competitors such as Vodafone.

"Increase the incentive to invest, a good thing," Mr Colao said. But now Mrs Kroes "must show that the competitive arena in Europe will contaminate these new criteria," he said.

Would begin under the plan of the European Commission, the Executive branch of the European Union to regulate the fees that mobile operators routinely numbers in order to lease the networks of the fixed-line operator.

In many parts of the world has been the domain of the local monopoly, or sometimes a duopoly in telephone and cable TV in the United States traditionally lines to homes and businesses in telecommunications. Until 1998 were allowed to countries in the EU maintain national monopolies for these "local loop" for the consumer.

Deregulation was needed but the former monopolist, to the cost of the local loop unbundling and it offers competitors, so that companies like Vodafone on the market.

Despite 14 years of deregulation and the former monopolists deliver the addition of more than 100 mobile operators in Europe are still the majority of fixed-line services in their home countries. In Spain, Telef?nica has more than 70 percent of this business.

Until now, unbundling has been set these rates by national regulatory authorities, and the average monthly cost per customer in the European Union amounts to €8.62, or $11.35. This fee is usually at least one-third of the monthly phone bills of the landline in Europe and influenced the Wi-Fi prices as you mobile service provider affects costs. The fee ranges from $4.20 in the Slovakia to €12.41 in Ireland.

Mrs Kroes proposed to reduce, not increase, to invest unbundling fees in September 2011, the old fixed-line networks for large operators to make less profitable and to encourage new networks. But the former monopolist protested, and after personal appeals from executives at large operators, in some cases accompanied by their investors, they reversed course.

Mrs Kroes proposes that each country within the European Union is committed to set his fee within the range of 8 € to 10 € per month, according to a copy of its proposal by the International Herald Tribune. The new range would require probably strong countries in which the fee currently is below this range, to increase only slightly in some cases and in others, 10 e.u...

The increases would be passed to consumers likely to. The increase of the fees could be biggest in Eastern Europe, where regulators most aggressive setting low lease rates to the competition have been. The level of leasing fees could double in Estonia, Latvia, Poland and Slovakia.

Mr Colao of Vodafone boss said that Mrs Kroes required legal certainty in their plan to prevent that large operators access to fixed-line networks to draw.

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