EC public consultation on revision of recommendation on relevant markets

FICORA - European Commission launched a public consultation on the revision of the recommendation on relevant markets: "On 16 October 2012, the European Commission launched a public consultation on the revision of the recommendation on relevant markets which was last updated in 2007.
The recommendation identifies the markets which are relevant for significant market power and which the National Regulatory Authorities regularly have to review. Relevant markets are markets which are susceptible to ex ante regulation and crucial for Europe's competitiveness.
Consultations are particularly sought from public authorities, Member States, the electronic communications industry, research institutions and universities, and consumer advocacy groups. Other interested parties are also invited to submit their contributions.
The public consultation is open until 8 January 2013. Further information about the consultation and how to submit contributions is available in English on the Commission website." 'via Blog this'

US supreme court finalizes gift of spying immunity to the telecom giants

US supreme court finalizes gift of immunity to the telecom giants | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk: "When civil liberties groups sued the telecoms on behalf of their customers whose communications had been illegally accessed by the government, federal courts began ruling against the telecoms, holding that the immunity they already had under the law would be unavailable to them, because the allegations against them amounted to knowing, deliberate violations of the law. As one federal judge put it in refusing to dismiss a lawsuit against AT&T: "AT&T cannot seriously contend that a reasonable entity in its position could have believed that the alleged domestic dragnet was legal."" 'via Blog this'

Net neutrality in Europe: Response to European further network neutrality co...

Net neutrality in Europe: Response to European further network neutrality co...: Dear sirs I am writing to reply to your “On-line public consultation on "specific aspects of transparency, traffic management and switch...

Regulatory Asymmetry? The Competition Between Telcos and Other ICT Players

Regulatory Asymmetry? The Competition Between Telecommunication Operators and Other ICT Players: "Jnl of Euro Competition Law & Practice Volume 3, Issue 5, Pp. 452-464. Laurent De Muyter*: "Under EU law, telecommunication operators must open their main resources (networks) to service providers including other ICT providers under far reaching and sometimes conceptually inconsistent conditions. But they have limited access to the resources operated by the latter (content, data, handset, software). This distorts competition, hampers network related investments, and makes high bids less plausible in future spectrum auctions." 'via Blog this'

Recent Uk competition cases in telecoms

"The Application of Competition Law in the Communications and Media Sector: A Survey of 2010 Cases: Journal of European Competition Law & Practice first published online May 15, 2011"
'via Blog this'Recent UK competition cae

ETNO's WCIT proposals are not as bad as some say, they're worse

ENDitorial: The ETNO's WCIT proposals are not as bad as some say | EDRI: " ETNO's proposals would squeeze every ounce of innovation and competition out of global Internet networks. Goodbye Internet, hello Minitel.
The concept sounds quite friendly and just a little esoteric: “Sending party pays” (SPP). That sounds fair, until you realise that the sending party already pays. It sounds fair until you realise that SPP has always been the principle in the mobile world, and the result of this principle is tens of billions of Euro wasted by citizens on untransparent, unjustified and, frequently, unjustifiable charges. Years of regulatory action has finally led to the most egregious of these problems finally being solved in Europe." 'via Blog this'

British Telecom could be overcharging taxpayer £100ms for rural broadband

British Telecom could be overcharging taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds - Telegraph: "according to a leaked Whitehall briefing, officials at the Culture, Media and Sport department have been told the broadcasting giant is charging a mark up of up to 80 per cent to introduce faster broadband in rural parts of the country. The document, compiled in the summer by a consultant who was working with the department, accuses BT of using “pseudo wholesale” figures to justify its costs. Experts said that if the forecasts are correct, BT's subsidy could be cut by £400million and £500million and still produce the same result. Experts say it could mean that home owners in rural parts of the country have to overpay through their council tax bills for the faster broadband.
Last night Margaret Hodge MP, the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, said she was shocked by The Telegraph’s disclosures and said her committee would examine the claims as part of a new inquiry." 'via Blog this'

Role and procedures of BEREC

Role and procedures of BEREC: "Articles 7 and 7a of the Framework Directive the findings of market definition, SMP assessment and – if applicable - the proposed remedies have to be notified to the Commission and other NRAs. The aim of this EU notification, the so-called Article 7 procedure, is to contribute to the development of a single market in electronic communications by ensuring co-operation among NRAs, and between NRAs and the Commission.
Once an NRA notifies the Commission of its proposed measure the case is assessed by the Commission within one month. At the end of this period and provided that the notified measure does not raise “serious doubts” as to its compatibility with EU law, the Commission may decide to comment. Regulators should take account of these comments before adopting the draft measure in question. When the Commission expresses serious doubts and opens a so-called Phase II, its investigation period is extended for two months more in the Article 7 cases, or for three months more in the Article 7a investigations. If this situation occurs, BEREC has to issue an opinion,,," 'via Blog this'

House of Lords - Broadband for all - an alternative vision

House of Lords - Broadband for all - an alternative vision - Communications Committee: "In our view, the benefits of opening up the restrictions on PIA are likely to be significant, particularly were policy to be re-oriented towards the establishment of open access fibre-optic hubs, as we advocate. Removing the restrictions on PIA may, of course, have knock-on effects for the effectiveness and coherence of other aspects of the overall regulatory edifice...234. ...since May 2011, Ofcom has had the power by virtue of Article 12 of the Revised EU Framework Directive, transposed into UK law, to impose regulatory obligations with regard to infrastructure sharing in the broadband market without reference to SMP." 'via Blog this'

Network access charges imposed by BT unjustified, Court of Appeal rules

Network access charges imposed by BT on rivals were unjustified, Court of Appeal rules: "The Court rejected claims by BT that the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) had not acted in accordance with EU telecoms laws when it considered whether what it had charged rivals was acceptable. Instead it ruled that BT's prices had served to distort the market to the detriment of its rivals and consumers.
Virgin Media and Cable & Wireless were among the telecoms firms that had challenged whether BT had breached charging restrictions imposed on it by the UK's telecoms regulator.
Ofcom had conducted an investigation into the 'partial private circuits' (PPCs) market in 2004." 'via Blog this'

Margin squeeze modelling can be simple or complicated, but never trivial

Margin squeeze modelling can be simple or complicated, but never trivial - Analysys Mason Group: "The legal work surrounding margin (or price) squeeze allegations is extensive and complex. However, in these cases some kind of margin squeeze model will be used, which will form the foundation to prove or disprove the legal case. The margin squeeze model will present the underlying numerical comparison of costs, prices (revenue) and profit margins relevant to the business situation being tested. Margin squeeze models can be simple or complicated, and the choices made will always be argued to fit the case in question. These choices (which we structure as scale, scope, financial test and cost/price principles) strongly affect the complexity of the margin model, its inputs, assumptions, calculations and outputs" 'via Blog this'

Article 7a of the EU telecoms Framework Directive

Article 7a of the EU telecoms Framework Directive: first thoughts on second guessing a second guess - Newsletter – Analysys Mason Quarterly - News | Analysys Mason Group: "Commission has recently issued a significant number of 7a 'Phase 2' letters. Each of these requires BEREC to respond within six weeks. Insiders have told us that this is placing a significant burden on the NRAs (which provide the manpower to BEREC); given the restricted duration, the process requires NRA experts to make decisions (about whether they agree with the draft BEREC approach) within days, even if the relevant expert in that NRA is on leave or fully busy in their own country. Many NRAs do not have sufficient resources to contribute fully.
Secondly, BEREC has always agreed with the Commission – until last month, when it disagreed with half of the Commission's reasoning in a case related to mobile termination in France. This is probably a positive development overall, showing that the system of 'checks and balances' can work. Nevertheless, BEREC is making rapid decisions about issues that are important and have wider implications than the narrow cases involved, which could lead to bad precedents being set." 'via Blog this'

Brussels backs down on telecoms pricing - FT.com

Brussels backs down on telecoms pricing - FT.com: "Investors in large telecoms groups had feared further pressure on revenues amid need to spend more on fibre networks. Nick Delfas, analyst at Morgan Stanley, said the proposals remove the potential negative of falling prices and should help build investor confidence over time.
Kroes said the new policy aimed to boost the investment in fibre networks for fast internet connections by allowing incumbent telecom groups to maintain charges for access to their existing copper infrastructure and so guaranteeing stable returns." 'via Blog this'

EC challenges regulatory remedies: Netherlands wholesale call termination / Denmark wholesale SMS MT

From T-Regs: The European Commission has, for the first time, 'proceeded all the way' through the Art 7a FD procedure and has formally issued a Recommendation to an NRA requiring it to amend or withdraw proposed regulatory obligations ('remedies'). The case at hand concerns the OPTA (Netherlands) notification for wholesale fixed call termination and wholesale mobile call termination.

The European Commission's press release is accessible via:http://tre.gs/4n 

OPTA has also issued a press release, accessible via: http://tre.gs/4p

Update 25 June 2012: The European Commission's Recommendation has been published: European Commission Recommendation C(2012) 3770 in Case NL/2012/1284

Diplomatic Arm-Wrestling Over Scope Of WCIT (ITU Treaty)

Diplomatic Arm-Wrestling Over Scope Of International Telecommunication Regulations Treaty | Intellectual Property Watch: "Among the hotly debated high-level issues was that if ITU recommendations become mandatory instead of voluntary. This could shift ITU standards into quasi-legal norms and give them privileges over standards from other standardization bodies. Yet the 47-member European regional group, represented by the Conférence Européenne des Administrations des Postes et des Télécommunications (CEPT, one of six regional groups at ITU), warned the ITR could “not be used to change the non-binding nature of ITU recommendations.” Other issues of contention are additional provisions on security, from anti-spam provisions to the obligation to provide a calling line identification (CLI), potentially also for internet telephony, to allow tracking misuse. 
Internet telephony using SIP protocol is seen by some ITU member states as siphoning off revenues from classic telephony providers, as a statement by Iran’s ITU representative made clear. African countries want to see cost-based transit, termination, and roaming rates, transparency, and an effort from member states to act against asymmetries of charging. The US favours a completely hands-off approach, and Europe is trying to get compromise on administrations pushing for economic efficiency, competition and price transparency for customers.

Compromise about the paragraph on charging for international telecommunication services given the diametrically opposed proposals, on one hand leave charging to the market (as proposed by the US and also CEPT) versus having regulators involved in the pricing on the other hand (as proposed by the Arab states, but also Russia) are still on the to-do list for the last prep meeting in June. From the point of view of the IP address managers, what is even more scary are considerations with regard to state intervention on routing. 'via Blog this'

Europe's Broadband Implementation Strategy

Europe's Information Society Newsroom: "Commission has now published a Staff Working Document. It summarises the current state of play in national broadband plans and fosters a mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge on good practices between countries by assembling examples of national implementation measures."
'via Blog this'

Competition Appeals Tribunal slashes mobile phone termination rate cuts

Competition Appeals Tribunal slashes mobile phone termination rate cuts, going beyond Ofcom's rates - Competition Policy International (CPI): to 0.65p per minute by 2015 (about 0.8eurocents)

'via Blog this'

Commission suspends discriminatory Danish SMS price regulation

EUROPA - Press Releases - Digital Agenda: Commission suspends discriminatory Danish SMS price regulation and starts an in-depth review: " expressed similar concerns regarding the discrimination of SMS coming from operators providing telecommunication services in other Member States. Howev"

'via Blog this'

UK broadband speed climbs 22 percent

UK broadband speed climbs 22 percent | Networking | ZDNet UK: note that this reflects a shift to fibre in cities...

'via Blog this'

Li Ka-shing’s Hutchison finally sees 3G profits

BBC News - Li Ka-shing’s Hutchison finally sees 3G profits:

'via Blog this'