UK RESPONSE TO THE CALL FOR INPUT ON THE FORTHCOMING REVIEW OF THE EU REGULATORY FRAMEWORK FOR ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS AND SERVICES

Executive Summary

The UK considers the EU Regulatory Framework has been a considerable success in encouraging competition, investment and choice in EU markets. However, that fact that the Framework has not been implemented thoroughly and consistently in every member state has undermined confidence in the single market and lessened the benefits the Framework should have brought.

We therefore do not consider that the Framework requires a comprehensive overhaul at the present time. In particular we believe it too early to move from the current ex-ante sector based regulation, as laid out in the Framework, to a more general reliance on Competition Law.

Instead, this response raises an initial set of issues and adjustments that will achieve the UK authorities� sincerest desire to see effective and faithful implementation of the Framework throughout Europe and thereby contribute to Europe�s competitiveness and economic growth benefiting her consumers and citizens. Specifically we propose that:

1) The EU makes greater efforts to ensure the full and effective implementation and enforcement of the Framework. In particular, we call on the Commission to:

- Focus its finite resources to tackle non-transposition and the most serious cases of non-implementation; and

- Ensure implementation of the Framework in relation to spectrum to enable maximum benefit to be derived from the spectrum resource.

2) National regulatory authorities should be well resourced and independent of national governments, possessing a full set of regulatory tools to analyse and enforce holistic remedies that will provide incentives to SMP-designated operators to provide genuine equality of access to their networks .

3) Continued refinement of the inter-institutional aspects of the Framework is desirable, including the Article 7 procedure, but the basic roles assigned respectively to NRAs, the Commission and Cocom remain appropriate.

4) The principles of better regulation should be reflected in the application of the eCommunications Framework, particularly with respect to the co-ordination of clarifying the overlapping requirements which some Communication Service Providers may face under existing and proposed Community Law; and in terms of the general authorisation process, where there remains scope for reducing the regulatory burden faced by operators and service providers providing services across several jurisdictions.

5) Support for the Commission�s focus on spectrum liberalisation, particularly with regard to the wider introduction of trading across Europe. Within the realm of spectrum management, the UK does not call for major changes to the institutional framework but seeks to facilitate more rapid access to spectrum to promote innovation and competition. We call for increased flexibility in spectrum management and emphasise that European decisions should be subject to the same exacting standards of impact assessment and justification as national decisions are expected to be.

6) Specific consideration should be given to providing greater flexibility to Member States as regards powers to impose future universal service obligations, and to impose fines on undertakings to ensure a robust regime for consumer protection.

7) Finally, in view of our concerns with recent determinations of what may, or may not constitute �emerging services� in the context of the Article 7 Process, we would like to see current interpretations explored to ensure that ex-ante rules would still apply to markets that are non-replicable (for example copper and optical fibre links).