Regulation Corner - 29-09-08

The EU Parliament calls for a new independent telecom regulator group to boost competition across Europe.

The EU Commission goes on: without reaction from the EU telecom industry to its call to cut roaming data services, it announced plans to cut the cost of SMS and data roaming in the EU by 2/3 from July 2009. Roamed SMS pricing would be capped at 11 euro cents (vs average of 29 euro cents) and wholesale price would be capped at 4 euro cents. Roamed data would be capped at €1 per megabyte, vs current €3-6. In addition, MNOs would be forced to bill on a per-second basis after the first 30 seconds of a roamed call. A political decision is now needed.

The EU Commission has launched a public consultation paper to clarify its view on new fiber optic infrastructure. In order to boost access to these networks, EU wants incumbent landline players to share their networks with competitors at affordable rates.

France is planning to unveil a new tender for the nation's new third generation (3G) mobile phone license.

Romania: the government has dissolved the telecom regulator ANRCTI, and replaces it with a new body named ANC.

Finland is planning to provide 100% broadband access by 2016, and consequently to invest some $100m out of a total of $290m needed to deploy fiber-optic networks across the country.

Bulgaria: Mobilkom complains about the Bulgarian regulator (CRC) for favoring the local incumbent BTC.