Brussels, 02/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is proposing better sharing of the ultra-high frequency (UHF) band between mobile telephony and audio-visual services. As announced the previous day in EUROPE, it adopted a proposal for a decision on Tuesday 2 February allocating the 700 MHz band (694-790 MHz) to wireless broadband from 2020. The text also guarantees priority access to frequencies below 700 MHz (470-694 MHz) to terrestrial broadcasters.
“Access to high-speed telecommunications has become an integral part of our modern societies and economies. Over the next decade, it means that we need to make top-class connections available everywhere in the EU - and preferably sooner. … But it will be difficult, if not impossible, to do this while we continue with 28 fractured telecoms markets”, said Commission Vice-President Andrus Ansip in his blog.
The proposal for a decision - accompanied by an implementing act - makes provision for four deadlines - in line with the Lamy report. It requires member states to: (1) conclude cross-border coordination agreements by the end of 2017; (2) make the 700 MHz frequency band available for effective use for mobile services by mid-2020 (corresponding to the timetable for deployment of 5G); (3) allow the transfer or leasing of the rights of use of spectrum for electronic communications services in the 694-790 MHz frequency band by 30 June 2022; (4) assess the use of frequencies less than 700 MHz by 2025. The report, the Commission says, could contain a proposal for regulatory amendments “which might, for example, change the substance or format of safeguards or their duration”. It should be noted, too, that the obligation to safeguard use of the sub-700 MHz band applies to the provision of audiovisual media services to a mass audience and not to the type of the underlying wireless technology or the type of electronic communications service.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) gave a frosty reception to the Commission proposals which, it says, “place a heavy burden on broadcasters currently investing and innovating on the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) platform in ultra-high frequency”. It calls for compensation for the costly changes that broadcasters are going to have to make. It is also against the flexibility option proposed by the Commission to encourage development of technological alternatives on the sub-700 MHz band.
The text, the legal basis for which is Article 114 TFEU, will now be put to the European Parliament and to the Council for approval. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)