The proposals are designed not just to boost the struggling companies in the sector but to underpin the wider growth in digital services and industries that require fast internet access and cheap mobile communications.
The European telecoms sector has been hamstrung by the large number of companies in highly competitive national markets and heavy regulations that have exacerbated a long term fall in revenues.
There are more than 100 mobile operators across the EU, whereas in the United States there are only four and three in China. The fall in revenues has meant that investment in next generation networks has suffered, with telecoms operators in Europe investing €3.5bn less in 2012 than in 2008 even as demand across networks grew fourfold.
A recent study showed that the EU's gross domestic product could grow by up to €110bn a year if the internal market for electronic communications were completed.
However there are still complaints that a set of proposals designed to create a single European market do not do more free the sector to consolidate in and across borders. A non-binding accompanying "communication" with the regulations lays out a more thorough medium term plan for a telecoms single market, pointed out one telecoms executive.
There are no plans for a single telecoms regulator, which many believe is necessary for a genuine single market, or move to create a pan-European spectrum license.
Moreover, smaller mobile operators, such as Hutchison Whampoa, have criticised the proposals as benefiting large national incumbents. Hutchison, which owns the Three mobile operating business in Europe, is angered that the roaming proposals will allow larger rivals to more easily establish roaming alliances.
