Press Release: Markets for mobile telephone: the Commission welcomes the French regulator’s decision to deepen its market analysis

The Commission on 30 May 2005 received a notice from ARCEP, the French regulator for electronic communications, in which the Authority resolved to continue monitoring the French market for access and call origination on public mobile telephone networks. ARCEP thus intended to reassess its analysis in the light of recent market developments and to verify whether the contracts granting network access to virtual mobile operators ('MVNO') that had shortly before been concluded were such as to provide a strong stimulus to the wholesale and retail markets and to increase competition between service providers. In these circumstances, ARCEP was withdrawing its draft decision relating to the analysis of the wholesale market for mobile access and call origination.