Viviane Reding, EU telecom commissioner, is launching a public consultation on Next Generation Access (NGA) networks. The public consultation will be open for comment until 14 November 2008. Its goal is to provide guidance to the national regulatory authorities on how to facilitate the rapid emergence of fiber to the home networks (FTTH) in Europe with the EU Regulatory Framework.
A review of the European Regulatory Framework for telecommunications has been taking place since the beginning of the year and its purpose is to provide updated guidelines and common rules for the development of telecommunications for 27 EU countries. Existing rules which govern the EU’s telecommunications landscape entered into effect in 2002. But they need to be revised because they did not take into account significant technology developments in the last six years, such as VoIP and IPTV.
The review (frequently called the European Telecom Pack) began in 2006 and was driven by the European Commission under the leadership of Viviane Reding. The Commission adopted certain proposals in November 2007; the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers (at present, headed by French President Sarkozy until the end of the year) will review these proposals this year.
Telecommunications is one of Europe’s most important and vibrant sectors, with annual revenues of €290 billion. It provides 4% of jobs in the EU. Liberalization of the telecoms sector, launched in the mid-1980s, has brought significant benefits for consumers and increased the pace of innovation in the industry. The introduction of competition has raised standards of service, making former monopolies much more innovative and attentive to the needs of consumers.
Prevent the creation of new monopolies
The goal of the Framework is to ensure that technological evolution will not create new monopolies at the expense of consumers. Among the propositions made by Viviane Reding in the review is the creation of a European Regulator called ETMA (European Telecom Market Authority), which has since been transformed into a lighter and much more efficient solution based on the existing ERG (European Regulators Group) gathering the regulators of the 27 member states.
Viviane Reding has also proposed terminating regulations in certain markets where competition is now robust. However, she continues to push for control over cellular roaming fees in Europe, a reduction in the cost of call termination for cell phones, and many others. Based on better regulations and more competition among the operators, this new Framework should create a stronger internal market for telecoms, and serve the consumer by allowing access to fixed or mobile high-speed networks as a universal service.
Rapid emergence of fiber networks
During recent discussions of the Telecom Pack this summer at the European Parliament, the New Generation Access (NGA) Networks appeared to be a major technology trend which was not sufficiently taken in account by the propositions. In fact, several countries in Europe (France, UK, Sweden) are working on their own rules to bring new very high speed broadband services for consumers. They are desperately lacking rules and guidance at the European level, and many former telecom incumbents are still trying to use their existing networks to gain a competitive advantage and lock out competitors. Some regulators fear the re-monopolization of these fiber networks, previously paid for by taxpayers, if the incumbents are allowed to exclude other service providers from the networks.
Viviane Reding asked the ERG and the regulators of these countries to share their thoughts and early experiences so that their recommendations can be incorporated into the Framework before the final decision at the European Parliament. The results of the consultation should give the Commission an extensive set of propositions to be added to the Telecom Pack. It will help European countries foster competition in emerging NGA markets, facilitate public incentives and private investment by operators in these new infrastructures. It will set the legal conditions to create a new fiber local loop where it is needed and fix the conditions for the sharing the network infrastructure between operators to lower the costs of civil engineering works.
See the Draft recommendation:
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/ecomm/doc/library/public_consult/nga/dr_recomm_nga.pdf
See the explanatory note:
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/ecomm/doc/library/public_consult/nga/expl_note_nga.pdf
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