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By Bate Felix

BRUSSELS, Nov 5 (Reuters) - The European Union secured agreement on Thursday on a telecoms bill to boost consumer rights, competition and fuel investment in the 300-billion-euro ($442.3 billion) a year sector.

Agreement had been held up by the resistance of European lawmakers to EU member states such as France, the UK and the Netherlands wanting to be able to cut off Internet access to users suspected of illegally downloading files.

France already has a "three strikes and out" law to restrict subscribers suspected of breaches.

In the end it was agreed that Internet users suspected of activities such as downloading copyrighted material or child pornography, cannot have their Internet access cut off without a prior fair hearing.

"It has been a long hard battle but at least all sides have acknowledged that fundamental rights of users need to be guaranteed in the digital world," Monique Goyens, director general of BEUC, the European consumers' organisation, said.

The deal now goes to the European Parliament and the Council of EU telecoms ministers for approval.

MORE COMPETITION

The reform will also create a pan-EU supervisory agency called the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) to improve how the 27-nation bloc's telecoms rules are applied so that no operator can be shielded from competition.

The reforms could see dominant telecoms operators such as Germany's Deutsche Telekom, Telenor , TeliaSonera and BT facing more competition.

National regulators will, however, have to ensure operators receive a fair return for their investments into next generation access (NGA) networks such as optical fibre and wireless technologies.

"It is a real opportunity in terms of economic take-off because if you look at the turnover, you are looking at over 300 billion euros in the sector," Catherine Trautmann, a French socialist deputy who helped steer part of the reform through the European Parliament, told the news conference.

"For businesses in the sector, there will be the possibility for further growth and investments without having to recourse to public contributions," she said.

The reforms also beef up consumers' contractual rights and give national regulators power to force operators to offer minimum levels for services such as voice and video made using the Internet.

(Reporting by Bate Felix; editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
($1=.6782 Euro) Keywords: EU TELECOMS/

(Reuters Messaging: bate.felix.reuters.com@reuters.net; Email: bate.felix@thomsonreuters.com; +32 2 287 6812)

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