European Union institutions have reached a political agreement over an update to the bloc’s telecoms rules that’s rattled the cages of incumbent telcos. Agreement was secured late yesterday after months of negotiations between the EU parliament and Council, with the former pushing for and securing a price cap on international calls within the bloc — of no more than 19 cents per minute. Texts will also be capped at a maximum of 6 cents each, Reuters reports. While roaming charges for EU travelers were abolished across the bloc last summer, the parliament was concerned that charges for calls and texts between EU Member States is often disproportionately high — hence pushing for the cap, which was not in the original EC proposal. The Commission proposed a new European Electronic Communications Code back in 2016, to modernize telecoms rules that had stood since 2009 — to take account of technology and market shifts, and align the rules with its wider Digital Single Market strategy. The proposal broadly focused on pushing for consistency in spectrum policy and management; reducing regulatory fragmentation; ensuring a level playing field for market players and protections for consumers; and incentivizing investment in high-speed broadband networks. And on the incentivization front, the new rules agreed yesterday update the powers of national regulators to act against dominant players — such as by being able to impose access to their network. For a case study on why such interventions might be necessary you could look at the fiber investment and network-access foot-dragging of a former incumbent telco such as BT in the UK, for example, which has long favored eking out copper.
Europe To Cap Intra-eu Call Fees As Part Of Overhaul To Telecoms Rules
Natasha Lomas, TechCrunch
Wed, 06/06/2018 - 3:11am
Topics: agreement reuters eu member states the commission electronic communications code back uk bt s telecommunications network operators association etno the code smaller the ftth council ftthcouncileu june congratulations delcastillop gabrielmariya violaroberto luigi gambardella lgambardella june that s consumer organization beuc consumers monique goyens telecom andrus ansip vp mariya gabriel eu europe council member states ec commission code market digital single market bt etno ftth council market cap investment networks measures bloc services calls players high broadband statement access pushing national parliament incumbent charges agreed regulatory years proposal intended costs deployment speed fibre separated front complexity modernize deal infrastructure measure yesterday institutions law policy texts home reached investments roaming boost playing level field negotiations regulators contract political fiber cents additional country step describes phone easier telcos update
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