BEREC consults on net neutrality transparency guidelines for Europe

At its meeting of 29 and 30 September the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications’ (BEREC) agreed to launch a public consultation on its Work Program for 2012. The focal point is to promote harmonisation through consumer empowerment on the European electronic communications markets. BEREC Chairman Chris Fonteijn:

Net neutrality is a priority for BEREC in 2011. One of the most important topics in the 2011 work programme are BEREC’s guidelines on transparency related to net neutrality. These guidelines emphasise the importance of effective transparency for end users and the best approaches to achieve it. In BEREC’s view, transparency will empower consumers by enabling them to compare conditions and tariffs. This will exert pressure on the market players to provide competitive products, realising the full potential of the new regulatory framework. Interested parties will be consulted on these guidelines in October and November 2011. In 2012 BEREC will continue the work initiated on other net neutrality issues.

BEREC has investigated how the European Commisson's NGA Recommendation has been implemented in the EU. BEREC concluded that the recommendation contributes considerably to regulatory certainty, but that NRAs have implemented different combinations of proportionate remedies. These differences reflect different national circumstances and BEREC identified increased localisation of markets as a trend. BEREC decided to continue the work on this topic with an analysis of the effects of the different sets of remedies, in order to formulate best practices.

Apart from the rates for termination of traffic and of international roaming tariffs, BEREC will now publish for the first time the state of play regarding SMS-tariffs. Termination rates and SMStariffs of all European countries will become more transparent. BEREC will publish the reports on a regular basis to provide input for policymakers and regulators. It will be published on the website www.berec.europa.eu on 7 October 2011.

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 6708 5438, Website http://berec.europa.eu