Frequency bands used by everyday wireless devices such as garage door openers, wireless alarms, baby monitors, head phones and microphones will soon be harmonised throughout Europe as a result of two recent Commission Decisions. Life will be simpler as anyone in Europe will be able to use the same short range wireless product anywhere in the EU and manufacturers need only make one product for the whole internal market. For consumers this could mean lower prices. Radio frequencies for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) devices will be also harmonised. These electronic tags are increasingly used in businesses such as retail and logistics, tracking of goods and persons, security and alarm systems, etc.

In a new round of proceedings against possible infringements of EU telecom rules, the European Commission has opened two new infringement cases against Poland. The Commission is also sending a reasoned opinion to Slovakia and Latvia, opening the second stage of infringement proceedings. The Commission is referring two Member States (France and Poland) to the European Court of Justice and closing one case against Latvia.

Telecom Italia Reception, Brussels, 11 December 2006

On 4 December, Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, addressed in an opening speech the Telecom World 2006 conference of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in Hong-Kong. For the European Commission', this ITU conference is seen as an opportunity to give a new focus on the international aspects of the EU’s policies in the field of ICT research in which the EU will invest a further €9 billion from 2007 to 2013. Commissioner Reding, who has been meeting policy-makers and business leaders in Hong-Kong, also used her speech to announce her plans for a new EU strategy on the international challenges for Europe's ICT sector. She plans on this issue a Commission Communication to be adopted in 2008, based on a broad public consultation to be launched in the second half of 2007.

On 27 November the Commission called on all regulatory authorities and stakeholders in Europe to step up the fight against spam, spyware and malicious software. Despite existing EU legislation to outlaw spam in Europe, Europe continues to suffer from illegal online activities from inside the EU and from third countries, the Commission underlines in a new Communication. The Communication stresses that although internet safety is on the political agenda for some time, national authorities should step up their actions to prosecute illegal online activities.

In a letter sent to the Office of Communications ("Ofcom", the UK telecom watchdog), the European Commission expresses concerns as to how wholesale tariffs, charged by the five UK mobile operators for terminating calls to their customers, have been assessed. In the Commission’s view, Ofcom's proposed tariffs keep termination values higher than necessary due to 3G spectrum cost valuations which risk overestimating the costs. The Commission therefore asks the UK watchdog to reconsider the valuations. OFCOM’s approach would be detrimental to fair competition in the UK's mobile market and lead to higher consumer prices for consumers.

ECTA Conference 2006, Brussels, 16 November 2006

On 8 November, the German telecom regulator, Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA), informed the Commission that it will continue assessing the German wholesale leased lines markets. BNetzA is therefore withdrawing its earlier draft decision (see IP/06/1304). It now plans to seek additional data and further analyse recent market developments, in particular relating to new technologies for providing wholesale leased lines in Germany.

Mobile roaming charges continue to be very high in Europe. This is shown by a Europe-wide survey, published by Eurobarometer on 7 November, and by the recent development of international mobile roaming prices. An overwhelming majority of EU citizens believe the EU should step in to make sure that prices for making and receiving calls on mobile phones when travelling in other EU countries are not substantially higher than those at home. European mobile phone users continue to pay between €4 and €6 for a four minute roamed call abroad, as shown by the European Commission’s website on roaming prices, updated today. In some cases, roaming prices for such a call even reach more than €12.
Other Press Packs

The first meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) began in Athens on Monday, 30 October. It is an important milestone agreed last November at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis (WSIS) as part of the drive to internationalise internet governance, to safeguard freedom online and to bridge the global digital divide. The Commission strongly supports this forum as a unique opportunity for an open multi-stakeholder policy dialogue on internet governance and development, helping to make the Tunis agreement reality.

With its letter dated 19 October 2006 to the Greek telecom regulator (EETT), the Commission has now assessed 500 notifications from Member States reviewing competition in their electronic communications markets. EETT's notification concerned low speed narrowband access to fixed telephone networks in Greece. With this 500th notification, the Commission now has a clearer picture of the state of competition in all Member States, in time for the review of the regulatory framework.

The European Commission has decided to refer Sweden to the European Court of Justice for its failure to change rules giving state-owned company Boxer TV-Access AB a monopoly to provide access control services in Sweden’s digital terrestrial broadcasting network. According to the Directive on competition in the markets for electronic communications networks and services (Commission Directive 2002/77/EC), Sweden had to abolish all monopoly rights for broadcasting transmission services by July 2003. However, Sweden has so far failed to abolish Boxer TV-Access AB’s monopoly. The referral to the Court is the final stage of the infringement procedure under Article 226 of the EC Treaty.

The European Commission has formally requested Greece to take the appropriate national measures regarding broadcasting services in order to comply with a Court of Justice ruling of 14th April 2005. The Court ruling confirmed that Greece had failed to transpose within the deadline the electronic communications liberalisation Directive 2002/77/EC. The Commission has asked Greece to reply before the end of December to its request, which takes the form of a ‘reasoned opinion’ under EC Treaty infringement procedures for failure to respect a Court ruling (Article 228). If Greece does not inform the Commission that it has complied with the Court ruling, the Commission may refer Greece to the Court for a second time and request the Court to impose fines on Greece (periodic penalty payments, lump sums or both).

In a new round of proceedings against possible infringements of EU telecoms rules, the European Commission has opened nine new infringement cases against Member States. The Commission is also sending a reasoned opinion, thereby opening the second stage of infringement proceedings, to eight Member States. The majority of cases in this new round concern a failure to complete market reviews to assess the status of competition on national telecom markets or the lack of caller location information to emergency authorities. The Commission also closed 9 cases, following satisfactory implementation of EU legislation in the Member States concerned.

In a letter dated 29 September 2006, the Commission has informed the German telecom regulator Bundesnetzagentur (“BNetzA”) that at this stage it has serious doubts as regards the compatibility of the notified draft measures for the German wholesale leased lines markets with Community law. In the Commission’s view, BNetzA has so far provided insufficient evidence to support its definition of the wholesale leased lines markets in Germany and the conclusions on the competitive situation in certain market segments, says the Commission. The wholesale leased lines markets are crucial markets for business customers. During the next two months, it will call for and assess further market data from BNetzA and market players. On the basis of the additional data received, the Commission will decide whether BNetzA will need to withdraw or whether it can adopt the proposed regulatory measure.

Almost one in four EU households is now connected to the internet via high-speed “broadband” links. Broadband’s popularity grows with household size – only 12% of single households have it, compared with 34% of those with four members or more. And, of those households that have only “narrowband” internet connections, 40% do not wish to upgrade, either because they are satisfied with the speed of their dial-up connection or because they do not use the internet enough to justify the higher cost of broadband. So says an EU-wide survey of 25,000 representative households, conducted between 7 December 2005 and 11 January 2006. The survey findings are summarized in a special Eurobarometer report published on 25 August as a contribution to the ongoing public debate on the review of the EU’s regulatory framework for electronic communications of 2002.

The Commission made public on 25 August three studies which should serve as “food for thought” in the ongoing review of the 2002 EU telecoms rules. Earlier on 29 June, the Commission published a Communication on the review of the regulatory framework for electronic communications, a Staff Working Paper and an Impact Assessment (see IP/06/874), which include several policy proposals for boosting competition and building a single market for wireless services. The studies published today deal with some of the key subjects of the review process: growth and investment in the EU electronic communications sector, regulatory reform and the state of competition in the electronic communications markets. While the three studies are not binding on the Commission, they are useful contributions to the public debate on the review of the EU telecom rules during the public consultation that will last until the end of October.

In a letter sent on 21 August to the German telecom regulator Bundesnetzagentur (“BNetzA”), the Commission endorses, with comments, a regulatory measure proposed by BNetzA that will give new market entrants high-speed access to end-customers (or bitstream access) via the broadband networks of Deutsche Telekom. This measure is meant to remedy the position of dominance of Deutsche Telekom on the German broadband market, identified by BNetzA already in December 2005 in agreement with the Commission(see IP/05/1708). The Commission welcomes in particular that the remedy proposed now requires bitstream access regardless of the technology used by Deutsche Telekom (ADSL2, ADSL2+, SDSL and VDSL). In its comments, the Commission asks the German regulator to ensure that the remedy is applied without further delay, in line with EU law, and that final clarifications are made in the interest of legal certainty on the German broadband market.

The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the potential risks for children of using mobile phones. Input is invited from any stakeholder, including child safety, parent and consumer organisations, mobile network operators, content providers, handset and network manufacturers, and regulators. The consultation will run until 16 October 2006.

The European Commission has endorsed today the findings by the French national regulatory authority, ARCEP ("‘l’Autorité de régulation des communications électroniques"), to regulate the wholesale prices charged by mobile phone operators for incoming short text (SMS) messages on mobile phones. ARCEP is the first EU Member State regulator to propose such a move.