and Sprint International. separate communities: Access charges, i.e. the amount paid by long distance operators to local exchange carriers for interconnection, form a large part of the The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) which was transmission costs, and bypass carriers often charge less for these formed by the Treaty of Paris, and signed by France, Germany, services. Competition in long distance and local markets can there- Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. It came into fore ensure equal access without the need to regulate it. In addition effect on 25th August 1952 and aimed to create a common the Open Network Architecture (ONA) was introduced in 1987 to market for coal and steel. ensure that the dominant carriers provide fair access to value added 2. The European Economic Community (EEC) which was formed service providers. by the Treaty of Rome on 25th March 1957. It has wide ranging The Modification of Final Judgement (MFJ) which outlined the aims, to result in an economic union within Europe. terms of the divestiture of AT&T, set three restrictions on the 3. The European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), estab- operations of the RBOCs: lished by the Treaty of Rome to increase the energy availability within Member States, primarily by the adoption of nuclear 1. They were to be infrastructure and service providers only, and power. were not allowed to manufacture equipment. 2. They were not allowed to offer information services, such as The European Economic Community (EEC) officially came into electronic yellow pages, audio text and video text. being on 31 December 1992, although this date is largely symbolic; 3. They were not allowed to offer interexchange long distance changes began long before this time and continued after it. On this services. date all tariffs, custom regulations and other trade barriers between Member States were removed. The EEC is a single market made The RBOCs have been fighting to free themselves from these from twelve countries: Ireland, United Kingdom, Denmar