31st BEREC plenary meetings in Cascais, Portugal and BEREC/EMERG/REGULATEL/EaPeReg Summit
During the 31st BEREC plenary meetings the Board of Regulators (BoR) adopted new Wholesale Roaming Guidelines and launched several public consultations on the draft BEREC Strategy 2018-2020, a draft report on Net neutrality regulatory assessment methodology and a draft report on IP interconnection practices. These documents were presented during the public debriefing of 7 June, together with some information on BEREC work on the framework review.
BEREC papers on the regulatory framework review
The BEREC work on the review was presented during the public debriefing of 7 June. The BEREC Chair presented and answered questions during the debriefing on the papers recently adopted by BEREC and providing technical outputs on several topics of the ongoing review of the regulatory framework for electronic communications such as non-competitive oligopolies, symmetric regulation, co-investment, the duration of spectrum rights, the peer review or on the proposed reform of BEREC.
Mobile: New guidelines for operators on wholesale roaming
During the Plenary meetings, BEREC adopted new Wholesale Roaming Guidelines which concern the wholesale roaming access obligations for mobile network operators and the rights for access seekers. In the document, BEREC provides guidance to the NRAs when resolving any disputes or taking enforcement action when mobile network operators do not meet reasonable requests for wholesale roaming access (comprising direct wholesale roaming access and wholesale roaming resale access) as required by the Roaming regulation. The new Guidelines replace the BEREC Guidelines of 2012 (BoR (12) 107 and include the changes of the amended Roaming Regulation. These guidelines shall contribute to the strengthening of competition on mobile markets and therefore to the enhancement of connectivity and innovation in Europe.
BEREC has also reasserted its commitment to contribute to the implementation of Roam-Like-at-home everywhere in Europe as of 15 June. The Plenary was indeed the occasion to share experiences of the implementation of Roam like at home at national level, through the presentation of specific national cases.
New BEREC Strategy 2018-2020 under public consultation
A draft BEREC Strategy for 2018-2020 was adopted for a second public consultation. This new strategy highlights 5 key strategic priorities for BEREC work in the 3 coming years on high speed network competition and roll outs, 5G and innovation, net neutrality, digital ecosystem and consumer empowerment; showing BEREC’s commitment to bringing more agility and transparency to regulation as well as to enhance engagement with stakeholders.
Watch BEREC Chair video presenting the draft strategy and inviting stakeholders to contribute to the public consultation
The consultation will run from 7 June until 5 July on BEREC online consultation platform. This consultation follows a first consultation where early inputs from stakeholders were gathered to understand market developments. The final version of the Medium-Term Strategy is expected to be adopted in October 2017.
BEREC regulatory assessment methodology to support NRAs in implementing net neutrality provisions
To be true to its objective of safeguarding an open environment throughout Europe, BEREC has adopted a draft BEREC report describing a regulatory assessment methodology with the aim to support NRAs in the implementation of net neutrality provisions. This report provides guidance to NRAs on how to best measure the performance of Internet access services and how to best detect traffic management practices applied to or impacting those services. To this end, it describes several examples of methodologies already in place such as speed, connectivity or delay measurements that NRAs could use when implementing net neutrality rules.
The consultation will run from 7 June to 5 July 2017 on BEREC online consultation platform. After taking stakeholder responses into account, an updated draft will be proposed for finalization and adoption for publication in October 2017.
During the Plenary, the BoR has also adopted a Report on internet protocol (IP) interconnection practices in the context of Net Neutrality for public consultation. It will run from 7 June until 5 July in order to gather comments from stakeholders and other interested parties.
The next BEREC plenary meetings will be held in Bucharest, Romania on 5-6 October 2017.
The next BEREC plenary meetings will be held in Bucharest, Romania on 5-6 October 2017.
BEREC 4-lateral Summit: Connecting Regions – Ensuring Connectivity in Convergent World
BEREC and its counterparts from EaPeReg (Eastern Europe), REGULATEL (South America) and EMERG (Mediterranean and North African countries) met in Cascais (Portugal) on the 31 May, for the high level BEREC-EMERG-EaPeReg-REGULATEL Summit aimed at addressing the main challenges deriving from ensuring connectivity in a convergent world. The meeting has been hosted by the Portuguese Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações
The debate was based on three sessions, addressing the following topics:
- Connectivity: Investments in ultra-high capacity networks and bridging the digital gap
- Mobile connectivity: spectrum issues
- End users rights in connected world: net neutrality challenges
At the end of the Summit the participants adopted a joint declaration, which can be consulted here.
Participants agreed that holding this joint Summit was a fundamental opportunity to promote the needed regulatory dialogue, based on fair and added valued discussions. Building upon the already existent cooperative liaisons and noting the financial support provided by the European Commission to EMERG and EaPeReg, this Summit recognized the benefit of promoting permanent initiatives of cooperation celebrated between BEREC and its counterparts of EMERG, EaPeReg and REGULATEL. The success of the Summit will ensure to frame future common initiatives, such as promoting joint working groups, information sharing and maintaining this high level regulatory dialogue through future meetings.
