An EC proposal to extend its veto power over national telecom market definitions and analyses to include competition remedies to make enforcement more consistent got mixed reviews Fri. at the European Competitive Telecom Assn. (ECTA) regulatory forum in Brussels. The move is part of Commission review of the e-communications regulatory framework. National regulators, not surprisingly, criticized the idea. A telecom users’ representative said it could help keep regulators from straying far off course. The European Regulators Group (ERG) sees need for the veto, said Gary Healy, dir.-market development for Irish regulator COMREG. The veto raises “turf” issues about whether the EC or national regulators are better suited to address local telecom markets. Legal vulnerabilities could arise if the EC isn’t made accountable for vetoing NRAs. And subjecting remedies to potential veto may make them rigid, Healy said. Instead, regulators are collaborating to find consistency, he said. This is the 2nd time the EC has tried to grab veto power over remedies, Iris Hensler-Unger, vp of German regulator BNetzA, told us. Member nations rejected the idea in 2002 and the situation hasn’t changed since, she said. BNetzA also opposes EC Information Society & Media Comr. Viviane Reding’s concept of an EU super-regulator, she said. The agency “much favors harmonization,” she said, provided it’s between member states. The International Telecom Users Group (INTUG) doesn’t have a formal position on an EC veto, but Vice Chmn. Nick White told us the Commission needs a way to speed imposition of competition remedies. INTUG members, who are business users, fear regulatory holidays like the one Deutsche Telekom wants. The EC should have a better way to stop an NRA headed that way than slow-moving infringement proceedings in the European Court of Justice, White said. The EC Art. 7 Task Force has reviewed 500-plus NRA analyses of 18 specific telecom markets’ competitiveness, said Vivi Michou, who heads the Information Society Directorate- General’s communications services, policy & regulatory framework section. Conclusions from the massive effort: (1) Full, effective enforcement of remedies is needed. (2) So is greater consistency on which remedies are imposed and how.
Deutsche Telekom (DT) has a new CEO, which could spur an already fierce debate over the telco’s demands for a “regulatory holiday” for its new fiber network, said telecom lawyer Axel Spies. Over the weekend, DT chief Kai-Uwe Ricke resigned “in the interests of the company,” replaced Mon. by Rene Obermann, a member of DT’s management board and CEO of T-Mobile International, DT said. Naming a skilled “hands-on” manager could signal stronger lobbying by DT, and raises questions about whether Germany is ready to buck the EC on the eve of assuming the EU Presidency, Spies said. Germany proposed waiving DT from regulation for new services. That has drawn sharp criticism from Information Society & Media Comr. Viviane Reding, who said giving DT a regulatory break could sap the telecom market as a European economic engine. Other countries are scrutinizing the debate. France Telecom (FT) is “fighting for a regulatory holiday, but is using a more subtle, politically correct language than DT,” said Paris-based telecom attorney Winston Maxwell. FT is willing to make its ducts -- plastic tubes that run under streets -- available to competitors wanting to string their own fiber and compete with the incumbent, he said. The telco also has said it’s willing to consider sharing internal cabling of building if other operators have the same obligation.
PARIS -- Large and small communications providers split Thurs. over regulating Internet-based services. AT&T said it accepts the need for “active oversight” of new services, but not rules. “Assuming the worst” about providers stifles innovation, said AT&T Senior Vp-Regulatory Planning & Policy Dorothy Attwood at the Global Forum here on digital convergence. But Marie Galere, an attorney for small rural providers, said strong regulation is needed to make the U.S. broadband deployment “myth” a reality.
European mobile operators Tues. denied EC claims their high international roaming fees are forcing consumers to turn off their phones while traveling. Their response followed the release of a Eurobarometer survey showing a “clear majority” of users want the Commission to align roaming retail call and text message prices to local charges. But the GSM Assn. (GSMA) charged the EC with “peddling incorrect data” in order to regulate an already competitive market.
Deutsche Telekom’s (DT’s) energetic lobbying for relief from regulation while it deploys a new fiber network has not yet won over lawmakers studying proposed German telecom law amendments, we're told. Last week a committee of the Lower House of the German Federal Parliament held a public hearing on amendments. These included controversial Sec. 9a, which would set suspend controls on DT’s VDSL broadband network and on “new markets” in general, said telecom lawyer Axel Spies. Despite govt. support for the provision, it’s not a “done deal,” Spies said. The Economy & Technology Committee wants more time to deliberate, and postponed delivery of a recommendation to the Lower House until after the original date of Nov. 8. But panel likely will vote early enough to let the house vote on the bill in a Nov. 30-Dec. 1 session, with an Upper Chamber vote Dec. 15 -- though that timetable could slip, he said. “The incumbent is battling very hard on all fronts to obtain regulatory holidays,” Spies said on behalf of the German Competitive Carriers Assn. (VATM). The issue tops alternative providers’ agenda, he added.
The U.K. seems to be gaining support as it tries to limit potential damage from an EC proposal to regulate “nonlinear” -- on-demand -- AV services, Broadcast Minister Shaun Woodward told a Lords panel studying the legislation Wed. Only Slovakia has endorsed the U.K. idea of regulating only “TV-like” services under a revised TV without Frontiers (TVWF) directive, but Woodward hopes he and his colleagues have persuaded enough other EU countries that govt. control isn’t the way to deal with nonlinear services to soften the Commission proposal, he said.
The European Ombudsman is investigating claims that the EC violated O2’s right to defend itself against antitrust charges, the office said Mon. The Commission began looking into complaints about excessive mobile roaming charges in 2000; in 2004 it charged O2 with abusing a dominant market position. The mobile operator accused the EC of hampering its defense by not granting proper access to files and data, by failing to allow a reasonable time for O2 to respond to the allegations and by infringing the company’s right to be heard in the case. The ombudsman will decide if the EC committed maladministration. The Commission, which has until Dec. 31 to respond to the complaint, doesn’t think the allegations are well-founded, because “we have scrupulously respected their rights of defense,” a spokesman said Mon. The Competition Directorate General has a hearing officer whose role is to ensure that, he said.
The U.K. is trying to drum up EU govt support for a compromise excluding on-demand services from proposed EC draft revisions to the TV Without Frontiers (TVWF) directive, The Times reported Tues. The draft would apply traditional TV broadcasting rules to “linear” audiovisual (AV) media services -- including webcasting, streaming and Internet Protocol TV -- and set minimal rules for “non-linear"(on- demand) services, prompting fears it could squelch YouTube and other new offerings.
LONDON -- Because “regulation shapes markets,” it’s important that the U.K. and EU find the right balance between consumer and infrastructure protection on the one hand, and giving next-generation service providers enough leeway to innovate on the other, Britain’s Internet industry said here Thurs. The policy mix should include self-regulation as well as a focus on “digital choice,” others said at the parliamentary conference hosted by the All Party Internet Group.
Talks on an interim airline passenger name records (PNR) agreement ended in a win for Europeans when the U.S. agreed to a more scheme more protective of privacy, EC and Presidency officials said Fri. After a 9-hour session Thurs. night, the parties settled on an arrangement under which U.S. law enforcement agencies eventually will have to seek passenger data --including phone numbers and email addresses- - from airline databases. The old agreement let the U.S. accessing data directly. The shift to a “push” system generally was welcomed, but data protection authorities and some European Parliament members said the temporary PNR doesn’t resolve major privacy concerns.