BEREC starts review of broadband common positions and submits assessment of wholesale international roaming costs to the EU Institutions

The BEREC Board of Regulators held its 10th Plenary meeting on 23-24 February 2012 in Vienna.

BEREC has agreed to publish a consultation document on principles of non-discrimination. This is the first step in the updating of its three broadband common positions to reflect especially the developments in NGA regulation. Following the adoption of the revised Framework in 2009, national regulators are now required to take utmost account of BEREC common positions. Its commitment to deliver these revisions by the end of 2012 reflects BEREC’s continued ambition to promote high-quality best practice for the promotion of the single market.

BEREC has also contributed its regulatory expertise to the legislators currently negotiating the text of the third Roaming Regulation. Following a request from the European Commission, the European regulators have issued an assessment of wholesale roaming costs to inform the debate in both the European Parliament and Council on the levels of wholesale caps for voice and data roaming. BEREC estimates that by 2014 the cost of wholesale voice roaming is likely to be below 5c/min, the wholesale cost of data roaming is likely to be below 5c/MB, and the cost of wholesale SMS roaming is likely to be below 1c/SMS.

The issue of net neutrality is also high in the agenda of the Board of Regulators. BEREC will submit its preliminary findings on the extent and nature of traffic management practices to the Commission and, following a short period of data validation, will publish its final assessment in the spring. This work will also inform BEREC’s consideration of competition issues relating to net neutrality, on which it intends to consult in the summer.

Following a public consultation, BEREC has published its first medium-term strategy, which sets out its intention to focus its efforts on promoting both high-speed broadband rollout and consumer empowerment and protection, while continuing its commitment to boosting the single market in electronic communications services. In this respect, the BEREC Board of Regulators approved for publication the final report on Broadband Promotion. The report identifies a reasonable mix of demand-side measures that can be implemented to promote broadband and encourage adoption by end-users.

The tenth BEREC Plenary meeting was the first under the chairmanship of Dr. Georg Serentschy, Chairman of the Austrian regulatory authority, RTR. The next BEREC Plenary meeting will be held on 24-25 May 2012.

Note for the editor:

About BEREC

BEREC is composed of a Board of Regulators consisting of the Heads of the 27 national regulatory authorities (NRAs). BEREC will advise the European Commission and the NRAs, and assist the European Parliament and Council, on issues related to the application of the EU regulatory framework for electronic communications. BEREC will help to ensure fair competition and consistency of regulation in the internal market for electronic communications to benefit consumers. In particularly providing expert advice on market definitions, analysis and remedies, definition of transnational markets, cross-border disputes and numbering issues. Furthermore, BEREC will provide expert opinions on emerging challenges such as the promotion of broadband, net neutrality and converging markets, and is ready to play an active role in the discussions in the public domain on these issues.

Contact details:

For more information please contact:

[email protected], tel. +371 6611 7590, Website http://berec.europa.eu