GSM Europe welcomes the European Commission's review proposals on spectrum and the digital dividend and the reduction in ex ante regulated mobile markets
Brussels - 13 November 2007: GSM Europe (GSME) welcomes the proposals to increase flexibility around the use of spectrum contained in the review of the Communications Regulatory Framework published by the European Commission today. "In particular, early decisions over the timing and availability of spectrum freed up from the digital dividend in the UHF band could benefit the European economy by over €20billion1" said Kaisu Karvala, Chair of GSM Europe.
In most European countries, broadband services are not available everywhere nor are they easily accessible by everybody. Given sufficient spectrum, wireless broadband services have the potential to reach those users that don't have broadband access today. "GSME strongly supports the goal of the European Commission to bridge the digital divide in Europe by providing access to a portion of the UHF band to the mobile sector", continued Ms. Karvala.
Reduction in Regulation
GSME also welcomes the withdrawal of the wholesale mobile access and call origination market from the list of ex ante regulated markets. "As the European Commission underlined in its 12th Implementation Report earlier this year, there have been steep declines in prices in Europe's retail mobile markets providing consumers great choice and affordable deals," said Ms. Karvala. GSME believes that the outcome of the review should be a further substantive and measurable move towards a regime where competition law is seen as sufficient to deal with all but exceptional and enduring economic bottlenecks.
The Market Authority
GSME believes that the only reason for the introduction of a new Authority would be if it makes significant improvements to the regulatory environment in Europe. Significant expenditure of resources and skills simply to improve the quality of economic market
analysis and the Article 7 process would seem to require considerable justification. "It is not clear whether any benefits of the proposal are not significantly outweighed by the concerns, the primary one being that the Market Authority will lead to increased regulatory intervention not less," said Ms. Karvala. "This would be a perverse outcome bearing in mind that the trajectory of communications markets in all but a few areas is towards increasing competitive intensity," she added. "Moreover, the Authority's power which is limited to giving opinions which are not binding on the Commission, may add complexity, but not accountability into the process. Ensuring accountability should be a priority above institutional reform," said Ms. Karvala.
Functional separation
GSME does not believe that Functional Separation is relevant to mobile networks as they do not have the same bottleneck characteristics as fixed networks. However, GSME believes that, although aimed at fixed networks, the proposal for functional separation of access and core networks could have far-reaching implications in terms of costs and impact on investment and innovation. It would set a precedent for extreme regulatory intervention in the structure of communications businesses that raises the overall level of perceived risk.
GSME Summary Position on the 2007 Regulatory Review
Notes
1An independent study by Spectrum Value Partners finds that Europe would enjoy economic benefits of at least 20 billion euros if positive action is taken to allocate less than one quarter of the UHF TV radio spectrum for mobile services at the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-07) www.spectrumstrategy.com
About GSM Europe
GSM Europe is the European interest group of the GSM Association, representing 167 members in 50 European countries/areas serving 600 million customers. The GSM Association (GSMA) is the global trade association representing more than 700 GSM mobile phone operators across 217 countries of the world. In addition, more than 180 manufacturers and suppliers support the Association's initiatives as key partners.
For further information contact:
GSM Europe
Tel: +32 2 706 81 05
Email: gsme@gsm.org
David Pringle
GSMA
Tel: +44 795 755 6069
Email: press@gsm.org
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