Brussels, 07/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 7 November, the European Commission wrote to the Polish telecoms regulator (UKE) to express its “serious doubts” about the compatibility with EU law of the proposed regulation of mobile termination rates presented by UKE. This is the first time the Commission has decided to use the new powers conferred upon it by Article 7a of the framework directive on telecommunications to carry out a detailed examination of the measures proposed by national regulatory authorities.
Mobile termination rates are the wholesale prices practised between telecoms operators for connecting incoming calls to subscribers using their networks and are ultimately included in phone call prices. The Commission is concerned that UKE's proposal provides only for recommended mobile termination rates to be published on its website in a non-binding form, instead of regulating these charges by means of legally binding and immediately applicable regulatory decisions. The Commission fears that this approach does not offer market players sufficient predictability and legal certainty, allowing significant deviations from EU regulatory principles enshrined in the Commission's recommendation of 2009 on the regulatory treatment of fixed and mobile termination rates in the EU.
The Commission takes the view that in the absence of a proper imposition of price control obligations, UKE's proposal could allow operators to practise prices above the limits simply “recommended” by UKE. This situation, it stresses, could lead to legal disputes between operators and to unnecessary regulatory costs.
The in-depth examination launched by the Commission on Monday is based on Article 7a of the framework directive on telecommunications. During this examination, which will last up to a maximum of three months, the Commission, the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) and UKE will work closely together to determine the most appropriate and most effective measures in light of the objective of the EU regulatory framework, whilst taking account of the opinions of market players and the need to create consistent regulatory practices. The Commission points out in a press release that the new framework directive also allows it to “adopt further harmonisation measures in the form of recommendations or (binding) decisions if divergences in the regulatory approaches of national regulators, including remedies, persist across the EU in the longer term, for example on broadband access conditions or on mobile termination rates”. (OL/transl.fl)