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To: Tunica Albuginea who wrote (12515)	8/3/1999 10:33:00 AM
From: zbyslaw owczarczyk	Respond to of 18016

Fresh from Europe: EU Will Allow GlobalOne to Provide Full Telecoms Service (The following is a reformatted statement from the EU Commission) Brussels, 3 August 1999 Commission intends to allow GlobalOne to provide full telecommunication services within the EU The European Commission has indicated that it intends to allow GlobalOne, the joint venture created in 1996 by Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom and Sprint, to provide all telecommunications services, including voice telephony, in all the European Union (EU) Member States. Before adopting a formal decision to this end, the Commission has published a notice in the Official Journal inviting all interested parties to comment. The Commission's position is based on the market developments since it approved the creation of GlobalOne in 1996, including the entry into the market of other substantial competitors such as the BT/ATT venture. In July 1996, the Commission exempted, for a period of seven years, the creation of the GlobalOne joint venture by Deutsche Telekom AG (DT), France T‚l‚com (FT) and Sprint Corporation for the provision of corporate telecommunications services, traveller services and carrier services.(1) The exemption decision was subject to a number of conditions and obligations regarding in particular abusive discrimination and cross-subsidisation by DT and FT in favour of the joint venture. These requirements were indispensable due to DT and FT's market power. In March 1999, GlobalOne's shareholders requested the Commission to review the 1996 Decision arguing that the facts on which that Decision was based had since changed substantially. The home markets of GlobalOne's shareholders have been completely liberalised and the market for global telecommunications services now features a number of strong competitors, especially the new BT/ATT joint venture, which are not subject to the same restrictions as GlobalOne. The purpose of the review of the 1996 GlobalOne decision, is to enable GlobalOne to be free to: * provide all telecommunications services, including voice telephony, on both a resale and facilities basis, in all the EU Member States (in addition to those covered by the Decision); * provide, on an agent or reseller basis, all voice and data services of FT and DT available to third parties in addition to those covered by the Decision. * enable FT and DT to be free to sell GlobalOne services along with their own services in one contract. The Commission is not at present reviewing conditions relating to the behaviour of the parent companies (e.g. conditions not to cross-subsidise or discriminate in favour of GlobalOne). The Commission's preliminary position takes into account the fact that since the 1995/1996 time period, when it first assessed the GlobalOne venture, the process of liberalisation in the EU has opened an opportunity to meet previously unsatisfied demands and has altered the structure of the industry. In the EU, this is leading to a change from a patchwork of national monopolistic operators to a large number of competing players at the national, EU and global levels. Most Member States have liberalised all telecommunications services and infrastructure and new entrants have entered the national markets competing vigorously with traditional carriers to meet user needs in all segments of the market. As a result of those developments the telecommunications sector has seen the emergence of alternative telecommunications operators, either vertically integrated or not, alternative telecommunications service providers, alternative carriers, providing either domestic or international telecommunications services or both, on a local/regional, national or global basis. The Commission has taken into particular account the fact that the T/ATT venture, with initial revenues forecast at approximately ten times of GlobalOne, will not be restricted in the same manner as GlobalOne is by the 1996 Decision. Before adopting a definitive position on GlobalOne's request, the Commission has published a summary of the notification in the Official Journal, pursuant to Article 19(3) of Council regulation No. 17, inviting third parties to submit their comments.(2) (1) See IP/96/651 of July 17th, 1996 (2) See Official Journal No. C 220 of 31 July 1999, p. 23, also avalailable on the Internet at :http://europa.eu.int/comm/dg04/entente/closed/en/closed.htm #idx -0- (BN ) Aug/03/1999 9:04