BRUSSELS -- The EU focus on consumer broadband services largely ignores business interests, said International Telecommunications Users Group (INTUG) Vice Chairman Nick White Thursday at the European Competitive Telecommunications Association conference. The current regulatory environment is slowing investment in information and communications technologies (ICT) and productivity compared with the rest of the world, he said. The new regulatory proposal, however, recognizes that transnational services need a different approach, White said.
BRUSSELS -- Europe must “break away from a purely national mindset” to resolve competition problems in the e- communications sector, Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding said Wednesday. She defended her decision to create a new body to advise the European Commission (EC) on regulatory matters, saying it will pursue a European approach based on a continent-wide vision. The proposal for the European Telecom Market Authority (ETMA) departs from the concept of a consensus-based approach and instead will be an open and accountable body within the European Community framework, Reding told the European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA) conference.
The European Commission is trying to gain power over telecom by swelling the bureaucracy, France’s top telecom regulator said this week in an interview with the financial newspaper Les Echos. It might have been appropriate to set up an agency to deal with spectrum management, network security at the EU level and related technical issues, but plans by Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding for a European Telecom Market Agency “go beyond this,” said Paul Champsaur, chair of the Regulatory Authority of Electronic Communications and Post. The new agency would remake the relationship between EU nations and the EC, he said, noting that the EU isn’t a federal state. Instead it functions through close cooperation among nations and EU institutions, he said. Champsaur said the EC ignored opportunities to use European Regulators Group expertise and failed to offer guidance on high-speed broadband, the distortion of competition between fixed and mobile telephony and other basic issues. The EC moved to harmonize international mobile roaming rates only when pressed by regulators, he said. Harmonization is needed, but only if regulators work under the EC, which should take the lead on major matters and make the final decisions, Champsaur said. All in all, Reding’s move to change Europe’s e-communications regulatory framework is “totally unhelpful,” he said. National regulators restated their opposition in a Nov. 6 letter to Reding, saying the ERG already had declared that it doesn’t favor “creation either of a new Commission veto on remedies or new layers of unnecessary centralism.” European Parliament members also fear a power grab, EurActiv reported. German MEP Angelika Niebler, chair of the Industry Committee, said details of the new authority need clarification, particularly regarding the EC’s plans for a gradual extension of the commission’s power. U.K. MEP Malcolm Harbour said Reding’s legislative package builds on the success of EU communications rules and tackles issues that lawmakers have demanded action on -- but the EC “has got carried away with big ideas of building a new power base, instead of leaving local regulators to get on with the job.” Lawmakers will demand answers about ETMA’s costs and benefits, he warned.
The European Commission Tuesday unveiled its plan to revamp EU telecommunications regulation, setting the stage for what is expected to be heated debate among governments and with the European Parliament. While many of the key proposals have been circulating for months, the regulatory package contained at least one surprise -- the proposal to merge the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) with a new European Telecom Market Authority (ETMA). The proposal is one of several likely to continue to spark criticism from various players in the e-communications sector.
“The jury is out on the continued rationale for Galileo,” the U.K. Commons Transport Committee said Monday in a scathing report on the embattled EU satellite navigation system. No final decision should be made without a realistic cost-benefit analysis, the panel said. MPs urged the government to do everything it can to avoid being railroaded into premature action. Meanwhile, finance ministers Tuesday rejected Germany’s plea for Galileo to be funded by larger national contributions to the European Space Agency, the Associated Press reported.
The U.S. kept its ranking as 15th in broadband penetration in the latest survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. But the U.S. seems to have persuaded the international body to add indicators. Starting this month, the OECD will compare broadband use, coverage, prices, and services and speeds in addition to adoption. The move is expected to provide a fuller picture of broadband services in member nations. The organization also launched a broadband statistics portal (www.oecd.org/sti/ict/broadband).
European telecom incumbents this week teamed with unions to warn the European Commission about risks they see in planned regulatory changes. In a joint statement, the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association and UNI-Europa said coming recommendations for revising the e-communications regulatory framework seem focused on short- term services competition, at the expense of jobs and long- term infrastructure investment. But competitive providers call increased competition good for economic growth.
German telecom regulator BNetzA is weighing a Deutsche Telekom bid to charge more for resale product ZISP, lawyer Axel Spies said Thursday. ZISP enables competitors to link to the network to transport traffic to end-users, and DT requires customers to link to 73 nodes on the network, Spies said. The charge, approved in 2005 by BNetzA, expires Nov. 30 and the incumbent seeks a 52 percent price increase, he said. Under German law, BNetzA must gauge DT’s costs for efficiently providing the services. The German Competitive Carriers Association opposes the request and wants the rate lowered, Spies said on its behalf. Since 2005 ZISP traffic and customer numbers have dropped significantly, making DT’s network less costly to run, with a falling U.S. dollar also driving down ZISP network equipment costs, he said. The competitors group fears DT will change its rate formula to charge more, Spies said. DT shouldn’t be allowed to charge rivals for any costs it incurs from its agreement to reduce its staff by offering severance packages, because the cuts will reduce costs, he said. Raising broadband prices for competitors will harm Germany’s economy and punish providers investing in broadband, Spies said.
LONDON -- With European Commission (EC) proposals for new e-communications rules widely leaked ahead of their expected November 13 publication, neither side showed much enthusiasm for a centralized EU telecommunications authority Tuesday at the Chatham House/International Institute of Communications conference. Speakers indicated feelings are strongly divided over whether regulators should be able to order dominant players to split their infrastructure from their services divisions via functional separation.
LONDON -- The European Commission (EC) proposal for a centralized e-communications regulatory body doesn’t sit well in the U.K., speakers said Monday at the Chatham House/International Institute of Communications conference. Giving national regulators more independence and resources is the better way to go, said Stephen Timms, Minister for Competitiveness in the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. The EC proposal may be “fairly unambitious” but it’s worrisome, said Martin Cave, professor and director of the Centre for Management under Regulation of the Warwick Business School.