By Paul Sandle
LONDON, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Vodafone took aim atEurope's former state telecoms companies like Deutsche Telekom and BT on Tuesday, saying that unlessregulators get tougher on giving their rivals better and cheaperaccess to their networks, new monopolies would emerge andcustomers would suffer.
Chief Executive Vittorio Colao also said the former monopolynetwork operators - so-called incumbents - were still relyingtoo much on their old copper networks, often built with taxpayermoney, to provide broadband services, rather than getting onwith building the pure new fibre networks Europe needs.
He also said that if the incumbents were to be given helpbuilding these new networks they should be laying enough sparecapacity - dark fibre - for competitors to use, and even takeover. In addition he said he was concerned that BT and otherincumbents were now looking at adopting a new technology toenable them to use existing copper lines instead of fibre on thelast leg of the network.
Colao said he wanted regulators to stop BT and DeutscheTelekom using modernised copper networks as a way of restrictingcompetition.
"The real thing that Europe needs is fibre and open fibre, ideally access to dark fibre, so you can all compete on the samegrounds, and that is also future proof," he said.
"There is a clear agenda on the part of these companies toundo 30 years of customer choice, re-establish their formermonopolies and make it very difficult for other players tocompete," he said earlier on Tuesday, after Vodafone reported areturn to earnings growth.
Vodafone had been in talks in the summer with Europe'sbiggest cable company Liberty Global about anunspecified exchange of assets, a deal that potentially couldhave delivered the convergence of mobile and fixed-lineinfrastructure it needs in major markets like Britain to handlehigh speed data traffic.
Since the talks failed in September Vodafone says it hadgone back to its original plan of building up converged fixedand mobile services country by country, taking on the likes ofDeutsche Telekom and Telefonica in the process.
In Britain, where Colao says Vodafone is not in the drivingseat in terms of consolidation, he wants BT to be broken up andits network arm Openreach sold, one of the options currentlybeing looked at by UK regulator Ofcom in its strategic review ofthe national telecoms market.
Currently Openreach is obliged to make its network availableto BT's own separate retail services arm and its rivals on thesame wholesale terms.
But last month BT got outline approval to buy leading mobileoperator EE, which will result in current owners Orange and Deutsche Telekom holding stakes in BT.
BT said in response to Vodafone's complaints that the UK wasone of the most competitive markets in the world, and it washighly surprising to suggest otherwise.
"The UK is a broadband leader and much of that is down tothe 3 billion pounds that BT has invested in its open-accessfibre network," a spokesman said.
"BT has invested heavily whilst other companies have sat onthe sidelines with their hands in their very deep pockets." (Editing by Greg Mahlich)
Vodafone (VOD)
