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* EU telco chief bids for single-market plan
* End to roaming and neutral net part of plan
* To include spectrum auction reform - sources
By Claire Davenport and Leila Abboud
BRUSSELS/PARIS, May 29 (Reuters) - Europe's top telecomregulator will call for an end to mobile roaming fees and equalaccess to the Internet in a speech at the European Parliament onThursday, as she seeks backing for reforms to create one marketfor telecom services in the region.
In emailed comments to Reuters, Neelie Kroes said her visionfor the sector was for "pan-European operators helping consumerstake advantage of a borderless market" as well as "increasedinvestment in quality networks and content."
The reform effort stems from growing concerns that Europe isfalling behind the United States, Japan and South Korea in termsof the quality and speed of broadband and mobile networks,although European consumers do benefit from paying among thelowest prices for telecom services.
The region's big operators like Telefonica,Vodafone and France Telecom often blameEurope's interventionist telecom regulation for sapping theirability to invest, as well as the fragmentation of nationalmarkets that hamper economies of scale.
Now roughly three months into Kroes' effort to come up withreforms to reverse Europe's lag behind the United States andAsia in mobile and broadband, some telecom executives andinvestors are beginning to worry that the action from Brusselswill fall short of the rhetoric.
It appears that Kroes' team is preparing more limitedmeasures than what telecom bosses had called for and whatindustry groups, including the European operators' associationETNO want, according to people briefed on the plans.
The idea of strengthening Brussels influence with a singleregulator instead of 27 national-level bodies, which wassuggested by some executives as a remedy for the hodgepodge ofrules they face, has been dropped. So have pan-European mobilelicences instead of national ones sold by governments.
TOUCHY
Nor does Kroes' plan address demands from telcos thatBrussels allow more mergers to create larger companies that caninvest in mobile and fixed networks needed for growth.
Merger rules are determined by Europe's antitrust chiefJoaquin Almunia, who signalled reluctance to allow industryconsolidation in February.
The reason for the scaled-back ambitions is not only thesensitivity of centralising more decision-making for telecompolicy in Brussels, but also the tight calendar of EuropeanUnion institutions. The Parliament elections start in May 2014and the mandates of the EU's current commissioners, includingKroes' term, will end in the second half of 2014.
Kroes is also under pressure to draft concrete proposalsbefore an October meeting of EU heads of state aimed at debatingthe telecoms reforms.
ETNO, the European telecom operators' association, isdrawing up ideas for the reform push but said on Wednesday thata "full revision" of telecoms regulation was needed to foster asingle market.
"ETNO strongly believes that the single market should not beimposed through additional regulatory obligations," it said in astatement. " should be driven by market forces."
According to people briefed on the proposals, the packagewill include measures to end roaming and net neutrality - tostop operators from blocking Internet-based services like Skypeor slowing down traffic.
Big telecom groups will likely oppose those moves,especially the call to end the roaming fees consumers pay whenthey are abroad. Companies are still implementing the EU's roaming caps from last year, which they say requires a technical overhaul and costs millions to put in place.
Kroes is also expected to propose changes to the way statesallocate valuable mobile spectrum, making the terms moreuniform.
Another proposal may be for a so-called "regulatorypassport" allowing operators to deal with one authority in theircountry of origin to handle licensing and data protectioncompliance, for example.
However, national regulators would keep the vast majority ofmajor policy decisions under their purview such as whether andhow local operators must share fixed networks and high-speedbroadband roll-outs.
Such a "regulatory passport" falls short of what FranceTelecom boss Stephane Richard said the sector needed.
"I plead for the creation of a real single market in Europewhere we erase the borders between countries, have a singleregulator, and one competition watchdog," Richard said at aTuesday shareholder meeting.
"Only then can operators consolidate to get critical mass tobe able to invest massively in networks."
