EU Lawmakers Unveil Alternative Telecom Reform Plan
STRASBOURG, France -- EU lawmakers will unveil counter- proposals to the European Commission (EC) telecommunications regulatory reform package next week, French Socialist MEP Catherine Trautmann said Wednesday. Trautmann spoke at a Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administration meeting on technology and regulation. The European Parliament Industry Committee is taking the lead in vetting many of the EC proposals, and Trautmann’s official report will reject the EC idea of an e-communications marketing authority in favor of a beefed-up European Regulators Group (ERG), with a different approach to spectrum management, she said in an interview.
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The EC proposed creating the European Telecom Marketing Authority to improve coordination with national regulators and, where needed, standardize telecommunications rules. But the concept is “very ambiguous,” since the body would have no decision-making powers, Trautmann told us.
In its place, Trautmann suggested an arbitration process if a national regulator proposed a competition condition the EC thought might be inappropriate. The EC would be required to seek an opinion from a new Body of European Regulators for Telecommunications (BERT), she said. BERT would be a stronger ERG interposed between the EC and national authorities and one that holds co-regulatory powers subject to the right of the EC to make the final decision, she said. This is much the same as today’s situation, she told us, but legislation is needed to create the new entity.
The process would require the EC to justify its concerns about a proposed national requirement and to take utmost account of BERT’s position in any disagreement between the two bodies, Trautmann said. For example, if a national regulator wanted to require a telecommunications provider to split its network and services arms, called functional separation, the EC would have to seek BERT input on the appropriateness of the condition. If both entities agreed functional separation was the way to go, the national authority would be green-lighted to proceed, she said. If the EC and BERT disagreed, the remedy would be denied, she said.
The industry committee report also will propose a different spectrum management regime, Trautmann said. It would allow the EC to lay out a roadmap for spectrum management and to propose standardizing some frequencies, but not to dictate how spectrum is used, she said. Any proposals must be discussed with governments and take account of Radio Spectrum Policy Group opinions, she said.
The report will propose that every EU country perform the same analysis of national use and economics of spectrum, she said. The result would characterize Europe’s spectrum situation such that the EC could base decisions on bandwidth utilization, she said. Some standardization is necessary to prevent fragmentation, she said.
The European Parliament is in “the center of the game” between the EC and the Council of Ministers, Trautmann said. However, she said, “we don’t want a war with anybody.” The Industry Committee debate on the report begins May 6, with a vote June 16, she said.
The EC reform package remains much-debated across Europe, but one regulator hazarded a guess on its outcome. Spectrum management will be liberalized, allowing free use of technology, more unlicensed use of spectrum, spectrum trading, and a more coordinated system for pan-EU services, said Martin Andersson, deputy director of Finland'’s regulatory agency. However, he said, the marketing authority idea is likely a no-go. The conference ends Thursday.