EU Proposes a Single European Telecom Market for 500 Million Consumers

The "Telecoms Reform Package," which was presented by the European Commission to the European Parliament in Strasbourg today, will change the EU Telecommunications Rules of 2002. It is expected to become law by the end of 2009 and includes the following main features:

• New consumer rights such as the right to switch telecom operators within 1 day; the right to transparent and comparable price information; the possibility to call freephone numbers from abroad; and a more effective single European emergency number 112.
• More consumer choice through more competition, especially by giving national telecoms regulators the new remedy of functional separation for dominant telecom operators.
• More security in using communication networks, especially through new instruments to fight against spam, viruses and other cyber attacks.
• A "New Deal" for radio spectrum -- the lifeblood of all wireless communication services -- to spur investment into new infrastructures and to ensure "broadband access for everyone." In rural areas of the EU, only 72 percent of the population on average have broadband access. The Commission wants to overcome this "digital divide" by better managing radio spectrum and by making spectrum available for wireless broadband services in regions where building a new fiber infrastructure is too costly. The switchover from analog to digital TV will free a substantial amount of radio spectrum (the so-called "digital dividend") that can be used for this purpose.
• Better regulation in telecoms by deregulating those markets where EU-driven market-opening has already led to competition; this will allow the Commission and national regulators to focus on the main bottlenecks, such as the broadband market.
  

With the reform, the Commission wants to enable citizens, wherever they live and wherever they travel in the EU, to benefit from better and cheaper communication services, whether they use mobile phones, fast broadband Internet connections or cable TV. A new European Telecom Market Authority will support the Commission and national telecom regulators in ensuring that market rules and consumer regulation are applied consistently, independently and without protectionism in all 27 EU member states. To become law, the Commission proposals will now need to be approved by the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers. JB