 |
Viviane Reding |
Viviane Reding -
new spectrum rules for the wireless economy
In a speech on Wednesday Viviane Reding member of the
European Commission responsible for Information Society and Media, outlined
her views on spectrum management.
The speech was given to the 8th Annual ECTA Regulatory Conference Brussels
on 28th November. In it she emphasised the key principles of technology
neutrality and service neutrality. These are principles that the UK’s
pioneering regulator Ofcom put into practice a couple of years ago, however,
many countries in Europe have been slow to copy them.
In the UK the Amateur and Amateur Satellite Services became technology
neutral in 2006 with users being able to implement any transmission mode
they wished the only proviso being that the transmitted signal is contained
within the Amateur allocation.
In her speech Viviane Reding said:
With the EU Telecoms Reform, the Commission also wants to tackle the
inefficiencies in spectrum management. Spectrum based services represent
€250 billion in the EU economy and are growing. Yet, the amount of
radio spectrum is limited and current allocation systems are rigid and
discourage innovation. The European wireless industry has clearly outgrown
the current command-and-control system.
The Commission's proposals in spectrum management aim to make binding
the principles of technology neutrality and service neutrality, with certain
well-defined exceptions. In our view the users, such as yourselves, are
much better placed than regulators – or the European Commission
– to find the most efficient use of radio spectrum. This is a strong
argument for substantially increasing the flexibility of spectrum use.
Technology neutrality does not mean anarchy as some commentators have
suggested. We still of course need rules. But those rules should be kept
to a minimum. They should be what are necessary to safeguard public health,
or to manage interference so that the various technologies can coexist.
But that should be the extent of the restrictions we put on technologies.
Service neutrality is even more important. The effect of designating
a specific service in a specific band has in the past been to limit competition.
The introduction of service neutrality is not an attempt to constrain
the role of broadcasting in Europe.
The present lack of service neutrality has led to a situation where we
are faced with de facto oligopolies or even monopolies, where the players
view a share of the customers as theirs by right. Such a complacent attitude
has, contrary to what some commentators would make us believe, often had
the effect to limit rather than promote media plurality.
A full copy of her speech is available at
http://www.europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?
reference=SPEECH/07/765&format=DOC&aged=0&language=
EN&guiLanguage=en
2006 EU Spectrum Management - Viviane Reding speech
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/december2006/
eu_spectrum_management.htm
|
