Biting the hand that feeds IT
Biting the hand that feeds IT
|
|
Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/21/france_wants_own_regulator_too/
EU commissioner Viviane Reding's plan to create an EU-wide telecoms "super regulator" has been attacked as being costly and pointless.
Paul Champsaur, head of French telecoms regulator ARCEP, spoke out against a European Telecom Market Authority (ETMA) in the French press yesterday, saying the plan also sends a message to the telecoms industry that the EU wants more regulation, rather than less.
Reding's plans were announced last November. A spokesman for the commissioner denied that the plans constitute a "super regulator", but it's hard to see the proposal as anything else.
There is an argument for cross-EU licensing of frequencies; to allow roaming and increase the addressable market as worked so effectively for GSM. But many (including UK regulator Ofcom) believe GSM was a lucky break and that regulators are generally very bad at predicting what the market wants. They would prefer to leave such decisions to market forces.
Handing control over to a central authority could see regional regulators legislated out of existence, but (perhaps more importantly) it would also let the EU ethos drive frequency allocations: such as Reding's preference for reserving frequency for DVB-H broadcasts despite the unproven technology or market.
ARCEP has, meanwhile, launched a website (http://www.arcep.fr/index.php?id=8977&no_cache=1&L=1) where interested users can type in a frequency and see what it's being used for - in France at least. When, or if, Ofcom will ever offer an equivalent service for the UK remains to be seen, but the disparity highlights the problems of having regional regulators with their own agendas and priorities.
The battle between regional regulators and the EU might seem to be about political power, but it's as much about ideological control of the airwaves that are supposed to belong to us. ®
Holidaymaker gets £31k data roaming bill (7 July 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/07/mobile_roaming_overpriced/
Orange eyes up TeliaSonera (17 April 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/17/orange_teliasonera/
DVB-H is the official mobile-TV standard (18 March 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/18/dvb_h_approved/
Wife rings up £11,000 downloading bill (4 March 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/04/international_roaming/
EU throws €5.5bn at embedded chips and nanotech (26 February 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/26/eu_joint_technology_initiatives/
T-Mobile and Orange hook up video trial (12 February 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/12/london_mobile_video/
Reding sets 1 July deadline for data roaming charge cuts (11 February 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/11/reding_data_roaming_deadline/
Operators race to pre-empt Euro data roaming cap (7 February 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/07/roaming_data_cut/
Ofcom boss demands action on data roaming charges (30 January 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/30/ofcom_mobile_data/
Europe to save citizens from rubbish Web 2.0 media (21 December 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/21/eu_media_literacy/
EU TV laws are coming (30 November 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/30/eu_parliament_passes_tv_law/
EU tunes in to DVB-H (30 November 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/30/eu_gives_dvb_h_thumbs_up/
Ofcom and EU face off for high speed broadband row (28 November 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/28/ofcom_eu_ngn_collision/
© Copyright 2008