EUROPEAN TELECOM FOUND TO WORK WELL OVERALL BUT WITH BIG VARIATIONS

摘要

Markets for goods such as mobile phones are among the best- performing for consumers, EU Consumer Commissioner Meglena Kuneva said Monday. Her second consumer market scoreboard analyzed more than 20 goods and services sectors against five indicators -- prices, switching, satisfaction, complaints and safety. It found that traditional goods industries are working "relatively well," with high customer satisfaction levels. The services sectors fared worse, however, and fixed telephony was near the bottom, she said. But Kuneva found "promising trends" in telecommunications services. The sector is characterized by "active switching," she said. In addition, mobile phone call prices are dropping, she said. nnOne major area of concern, however, is the wide disparity in broadband access prices, she said. The European Consumers' Organization said the scorecard "validates a number of long- standing... demands" by the group. Chief among them is for lower mobile and fixed telephony costs, it said. The survey showed "beyond any doubt" the need to regulate fixed and mobile termination rates at the wholesale and retail level, it said. The organization supports EC plans to standardize the way termination rates are calculated because it's likely to lead to lower prices on the retail side, the organization said. It asked the EC to wrap up its proposal as soon as possible.