BEREC report on interoperability of Number-Independent Interpersonal Communication Services (NI-ICS)

Number-Independent Interpersonal Communication Services (NI-ICS) are interpersonal communication services which do not connect with publicly assigned numbering resources, or which do not enable communication with a number in national or international numbering plans. NI-ICS typically include messaging, video-conferencing and e-mail services. The use of NI-ICS has drastically increased over the past years and such services have now become a crucial means of communication for a variety of different users throughout Europe.
Most NI-ICS exhibit very strong proprietary network effects1, as users can typically communicate only with other users of the same service. Although multi-homing is possible and common, the market for messaging services appears to be significantly concentrated around very few players. In order to unleash and share such network effects among several providers, and thus facilitate market contestability, interoperability obligations for specific NI-ICS providers are included under Article 7 of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and, with a focus on ensuring end-to-end connectivity, under Article 61(2) of the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC).
Interoperability is the ability of two or more systems or components to exchange information and to use the information that has been exchanged. To this end, it requires a common understanding among players on several aspects, and can be implemented, for example via interfaces set by the provider or a standardisation process. Interoperability is not an end in itself, but a means to reach specific objectives – such as facilitating sustainable competition. It can do so by following different approaches and technical implementation options.
After presenting the main economic features and the state of the market for some NI-ICS, BEREC explores and analyses i) the objectives, the scope and the “triggers” of interoperability obligations under both the DMA and the EECC, ii) the potential technical approaches and the implementation challenges to be taken into account when applying these measures, as well as iii) the interplay between the two regulatory frameworks (DMA & EECC). The current work focuses on messaging services, but other NI-ICS may be further analysed by BEREC in the future.