The European Union's telecommunications commissioner is threatening to crack down on member nations that continue to have phone and cable monopolies that take unfair advantage of consumers. The announcement was recently put forth in an address to the European Competitive Telecommunications Association.
Currently, it appears that 27 national regulators ignore the guidelines that were established to reduce the monopolistic costs imposed on consumers in EU member nations. New powers from the telecom law from 2009 will allow for the forthcoming investigations. Throughout Europe former monopolies control the "local loop" or "last mile" connections to consumers. These former monopolies include France Télécom, Deutsche Telekom, Telecom Italia and Telefónica of Spain.