| 12th implementation report on the EU’s telecom markets published |
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On March 29th, 2007, the European Commission (EC) published the 12th implementation report on the EU’s telecom markets.
It consists in a broad analysis of the state by state implementation results of the current EU regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services (Telecom package). It is composed of a Communication and a Staff working document. It announces that “transposition of the regulatory framework into the national law of the 25 EU Member States was completed in 2006.” As in all recent documents related to the Telecom package, the stress for spectrum management reform is still present: “in order to realize the full potential of the internal market, […] a strengthening of the framework in areas such as spectrum management [is] needed.” (p. 2 of the Communication) Indeed, as the “total value of e-communications services dependent on the use of spectrum is estimated to exceed €200 billion, efficient spectrum management [is] a critical factor for the success of the EU economy. Recent research shows that effective spectrum management across all Member States could generate up to 0.1% of GDP growth” (p. 15 of the Communication; these figures are quoted from: Conditions and options in introducing secondary trading of radio spectrum in the European Community, Analysis et al., May 2004, p. 12; and Benchmarking Impacts of EU Policy – Options for Economically Efficient Management of Radio Spectrum, SCF Associates, December 2006, not yet public). As the proposal for the review of the Telecom package is likely to be published in mid-2007, this report constitutes one of the last major studies provided by the EC on this topic, and thus shows the firmness of the EC on spectrum issues. Moreover, in the slides used to support her speech to present this report, Mrs. Reding, Info Society and Media Commissioner, introduced the idea of having a “European FCC” created thanks to the Telecom package review (see here).
To access the EC press release on the publication of this report, click here
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