EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said she was considering launching a sector-wide inquiry into telecommunications, an AFP report said.
The official was quoted by AFP as saying that after the completion of current sector probes into energy and financial services by the end of the year, the telecom industry would be "ripe for a competition inquiry as well."
"Telecommunications could be an excellent area in which we could start an inquiry," she said. "It's an excellent instrument to find out what is really rotten "&brkbar; or what's not rotten."
Kroes launched sector inquiries into the energy and financial services industries in June last year, the report said.