FACTBOX-Draft plan for overhaul of EU telecom rules

Nov 13 - The European Union executive proposed controversial changes to the bloc's telecom rules on Tuesday.

Here are the key issues:

KEY POINTS OF THE DRAFT

- Give national regulators power to force separation of the network and service businesses of a telecoms operator, without divestiture of assets, in cases of serious competition problems.

- Allow the European Commission to override national regulators if it is not happy with the way they handle a competition problem.

- Create a European Electronic Communications Market Authority to advise the European Commission on how to fix competition problems and ensure the security of the networks. It would bring together the 27 national regulators.

- Cut the number of markets under special scrutiny to seven from 18, with many wholesale markets removed, including access to incumbent mobile operators' networks. This means regulators will stop carrying out systematic reviews of these markets.

- Ensure transfer of telephone numbers, following a change of operator, are completed within a day.

- Open up access to spectrum and allow trading of rights.