The future of EU telecoms rules had national regulators, the European Commission’s competition directorate (DG COMP) and the EU executive’s connectivity directorate (DG CNECT) battling it out at an event in Brussels on Wednesday (25 September).
EU countries, the bodies of various EU institutions, Big Tech, and telco companies of all sizes have been gearing up for a battle over the European Union’s future telecoms regulation.
These include a review of the European Electronics Communications Code (EECC), expected in December 2025, and a Digital Networks Act (DNA) to boost very high-capacity networks.
“The framework of electronic communications is one of the most harmonised” across the EU, said Tonko Obuljen, chair of the body of EU regulators, BEREC.
Speaking on the same panel, DG CNECT Director Kamila Kloc, argued for the opposite, echoing the recently published reports on the future of the single market by Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta.
According to Draghi, Letta and the DG CNECT, the sector is too fragmented compared to the US or China, which they say calls for market consolidation and regulatory harmonisation at EU level.
During the same conference, however, DG COMP Director Carlota Reyners Fontana took aim at DG CNET’s support of national market consolidation, which is presented as a way of tackling the alleged fragmentation of the telecommunications market.
“Unfettered in-country consolidation within a given member state is not the answer [to create a single European market],” said Reyners Fontana.
“Consolidation in mobile telecoms tends to lead to higher prices for users,” DG COMP said in a June report.
Changing structures
As for encouraging investment, both Reyners Fontana and Obuljen said that “competition is essential.”
Reyners Fontana said she supported Draghi’s recommendation to harmonise EU spectrum rules and invest in future technologies, such as edge computing to reduce data transports over smaller distances, and in open network services, such as OpenRAN.
Obuljen also said that he opposed indirect deregulation of the telecoms sector, which the Commission is considering in its next review of the recommendation on relevant markets.
The recommendation defines sub-markets in the telecommunications sector that are subject to ex-ante regulation by national authorities. The Commission has proposed to reduce to zero the designated markets in which national regulators can intervene.
This would put the onus on national markets to define markets, subject to Commission approval, increasing the bureaucratic burden on national regulators and giving the EU executive more scrutiny powers.
In 2020, the Commission reduced the number of these sub-markets subject to ex-ante regulation from 18 in 2003 to two. These include the markets with access to cables owned by incumbent operators, dubbed “wholesale local access provided at fixed location” and “wholesale dedicated capacity.”
EU-wide regulator
In contrast to the Draghi report, which proposed the creation of a European telecoms regulatory authority, BEREC’s chair said: “Any centralisation of regulatory powers should be accompanied by clear justification and accountability.”
Obuljen also expressed concerns about proposals for regulatory centralisation, such as the country-of-origin approach to market entry for network providers proposed in DG CNECT’s white paper.
It “could encourage so-called forum shopping and create jurisdictional complexities,” he said.
[Edited by Eliza Gkritsi/Daniel Eck]