EU Lawmakers Endorse Regulatory Body, Net Neutrality

Members approved creation of a Body of European Regulators to act as an independent expert adviser to the EC. Lawmakers opposed an EC plan for a European Electronic Communications Market authority, saying the advisory body will be “leaner.” Members want the EU and national regulators to pay for the body, but didn’t specify the contributions. They also rejected the EC plan for the advisory body to take over the European Network and Information Security Agency’s tasks.

Members approved a co-regulatory system under which national authorities must consult with the EC and the advisory body before ruling, the committee said. If the body considers a competition measure inappropriate or ineffective, the EC can require the national body to change it. Regulators will be allowed to require dominant players to split their network and services divisions if the body and the EC decide that’s the only way to spur competition, the committee said.

Parliament stressed that broadcasters should keep the right to use whatever radio spectrum they need for broadcast services. But it said frequencies rendered unnecessary for that use can be allocated for wireless broadband services. EU governments must cooperate with one another and with the EC in planning, coordinating and harmonizing spectrum use, Parliament members voted, urging the EC to propose a spectrum action program and measures for better EU-level coordination of the digital dividend.

Lawmakers approved amendments beefing up universal services provisions and urged the EC to submit plans this fall for applying the rules to mobile phone and broadband. Further amendments require providers to give consumers clear, current information on access to emergency services, restrictions on content or equipment use, client and after- sales services, payment methods and charges for number portability or ending a contract.

The adopted report bars governments from imposing anti- piracy filtering or mandating or other controls on telecom devices if the action restrains trade. Technical measures may be justified, lawmakers voted, but customers must be informed fully about them. Operators must give subscribers information on unlawful activities such as copyright infringement and on how to protect personal data, the members voted. They voted to extend EU data-protection laws to include a right to privacy and confidentiality as well as covering security of information technology systems. Lawmakers voted for data-protection rules to cover private networks such as Facebook in addition to public networks.

Network operators and new entrants continued to spar over the regulatory package’s effect on competition. Parliament gave a “strong positive signal” that it wants open access to fiber networks and supports the principle of separating the ownership of networks and services, said Ilsa Godlovitch, European Competitive Telecommunications Association regulatory affairs manager. But ECTA fears that Parliament members have “added to the Commission’s proposals a toxic mix of conditions” that will undermine national regulators’ ability to open networks and hamper competition, she said.

Parliament’s proposal that dominant incumbents share the risk of fiber investments with competitors that are smaller and less well-endowed is another key concern, Godlovitch said. And Parliament wants to duplicate more infrastructure at a time when this is mostly unprofitable and unsupported by the capital markets, she said. The European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association, however, said lawmakers’ proposals to spark investment and to allow risk-sharing are a positive sign, given European telecom’s “deteriorating investment performance.” ETNO voiced fear that net neutrality rules will hinder operators’ ability to manage networks.

The Business Software Alliance urged government telecom ministers, now to seek accord on the reform package, to ensure that operators can continue to access traffic data such as Internet Protocol numbers needed to handle security threats. The Council “should be wary” of subjecting traffic data to “new unworkable legal requirements that apply to data controllers,” said Francisco Mingorance, senior director for public policy.

Most of the proposal supports infrastructure-based competition, but the requirement that all network owners give third parties access to their ducts is an “unacceptable major shift in European regulation,” Cable Europe said. It’s “unheard of for such intrusive regulation to be applicable to all market players,” large and small, it said. But the German Competitive Carriers Association supports nondiscriminatory access to next-generation networks on all levels, including empty ducts and pipes, cable distributors and dark fiber, said telecommunications attorney Axel Spies. Competitors “should not be left in the dark by the incumbents,” he said.

The Association of Commercial Television in Europe praised Parliament members for seeing the inappropriateness of a one-size-fits-all approach to use of digital dividend spectrum. Governments should decide what works in their markets, said Director General Ross Bigham.

The text approved is “significantly better for consumers than the original proposal” by the EC, said Monique Goyens, director general of the European Consumers’ Organization. Consumers will benefit from added openness about pricing and contract terms, and from the fact that providers must notify them of personal data breaches, she said. “Thankfully, MEPs spoke out against the “graduated response” model” on copyright infringement,” Goyens said. “The fundamental rights of individual freedom and privacy will not be called into question for the purposes of enforcing copyright.”

EU Commissioner Viviane Reding praised the “European Parliament decision in favor of establishing a European telecoms regulator,” even though the new regulatory body will not be the EU FCC, as she had proposed. Although the new body will be smaller than she wanted, Reding said, and it won’t have responsibility for network security, the Parliament’s amendments ensured that the new European telecom regulator can deal efficiently with the remaining business obstacles and consumer problems in the single market.