Liberalisation and regulation in Electronic Communications in the EU 2nd ICT Summit Istanbul, 36 Sep

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Liberalisation and regulation in Electronic
Communications in the EU2nd ICT
SummitIstanbul, 3-6 September 2002
EUROPEAN COMMISSION

• Hans-Peter Gebhardt
• DG Information Society

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1. The Benefits of Liberalisation since 1998
Key market indicators

• Number of operators and consumer choice
• Rebalancing of (retail) tariffs
• Market shares

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Almost 1600 operators
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Consumer choice in voice telephony
Number of Member States where 100 of the
population has a choice between
Source NRAs and European Commission
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Cost of international calls
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Local and long-distance call charges (3 min)
Source Teligen
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International Leased lines
Price trends 1998 - 2001
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Market shares (voice telephony)
EU incumbent operators' averagecall market
shares (by revenue)
Source NRAs and European Commission
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Market shares (mobile)
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Outlook

• Liberalisation successful, but
• Full and consistent application of current
  framework essential
• Progress in local loop unbundling crucial
• Leased line prices and provisioning times need to
  be brought down even further
• More flexible regulatory environment in future

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2. The New EU Regulation

• A successful legal framework will
• Attract investment, by
• - encouraging market entry- providing legal
  certainty - restraining firms with undue market
  power- keeping regulation to the minimum
  necessary
• Promote choice and competition
• Safeguard users interests, where market forces do
  not

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Electronic communications networks and services
- Scope
Content Services - outside scope of new
framework(e.g. broadcast content, e-commerce
services)
Communications services (e.g. telephone, fax,
e-mail)
Communications networks (fixed, mobile,
satellite, cable TV, powerline systems, networks
used for radio and television broadcasting) and
associated facilities (e.g. CAS)
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Players to be regulated

• Undertakings with a dominant position in an
  identified market where competition is not
  effective
• NRA designates such players as having SMP and
  imposes appropriate obligations
• Commission can block NRA decisions regarding
  designation, or not, of undertakings with SMP

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Market entry procedures

• Market entry needs no prior permission
• Conditions are set out in general authorisation,
  and are limited
• Individual rights-of-use of frequencies and
  numbers assigned via individual authorisations

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National Regulatory Authorities
Effective implementation of regulation requires

• Rapid decision-making / dispute resolution
• Systematic appeals mechanisms
• Power, clarity of address, resources, skills

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The new package
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Framework Directive (Art. 95)
Liberalisation Directive (Art. 86)
?
?
?
Spectrum Decision (Art. 95)
?
Unbundled local loopRegulation
?1.1.2001
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FOR MORE INFORMATION

• On DG Information Society
• http//europa.eu.int/information_society/topics/te
  lecoms/index_en.htm
• On the new legislation
• http//europa.eu.int/information_society/topics/te
  lecoms/regulatory/new_rf/index_en.htm
• On the 7th Implementation Report
• http//europa.eu.int/information_society/topics/te
  lecoms/implementation/annual_report/7report/index_
  en.htm