BELTUG Update on Global Communications Issues (April 2009)

BELTUG UPDATE on international issues 22 APRIL 2009

Based on our work in INTUG, the International Telecommunications Users Group  1. Invitation to the BELTUG/INTUG event on May 19 in Brussels 2. European Framework 3. International Roaming Charges 4. Fixed and Mobile Termination Rates  5. Asia Pacific 6. United States

INTUG remains active all over the world, and landmark decisions are being influenced in many matters as indicated below. The goal is to encourage investment and innovation whilst preserving competition and enabling consistency in international telecommunications services. BELTUG defends your interests and addresses issues with government representatives and service providers.

1. Invitation to the BELTUG/INTUG event on 19 May in Brussels

INTUG’s next meeting is in Brussels on 19-20 May. INTUG and BELTUG are delighted to invite you to attend the open INTUG meeting. The first day's topic is "Open Markets for Communications in Tomorrow's World", and promises to be an excellent and informative event, with an opportunity to influence future directions, and to learn of plans from around the world. We are privileged to have a number of distinguished international speakers from the European Commission, OECD, European Competitive Telecommunications Association, BEUC (the European Consumers’ Organisation) and more. The agenda and registrations details, can be found here.

2. The European framework

The Commission’s recently published 14th Annual Progress report (which includes a report on every country) on the “single Market” in telecoms presents positive evidence of the value of competition, but fixed incumbent market shares have now stabilised. The sector currently represents nearly 3% of EU GDP. Fixed voice revenues continue to decline by 5% per year. Mobile penetration is up to 119%. Average mobile monthly bills have fallen by a third over 4 years to €24, but there are wide variations, with mobile voice prices ranging from €0.05 to €0.27 per minute. At the time of writing, the final outcome of the Framework Review is still uncertain. The main issue has been adressing Germany's insistence on a special relaxation of access rules for its incumbent provider, with regard to investment in NGA networks. At stake is the preservation of open competition in broadband access services. If the ex-monopoly incumbents, such as Deutsche Telekom and Telefonica, are allowed to monopolise use of their investments in infrastructure access, there will be no choice for business customers, and no prospect of seamless transborder networks. Progress has been made in other areas of the review, following strong representation by INTUG and others, but this remains a bottleneck. On a lighter note, the regulatory group called ERG/IRG (European Regulators Group, which includes BIPT/IBPT) has yet another name after BERT and GERT - it’s BEREC: Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications!

3. International Roaming Charges

The EU Industry Committee has set new roaming call price caps for 2010 to mid-2012. As of July 2010, the maximum charge for making a mobile phone call from one EU Member State to another will fall to €0.40 from €0.46 per minute. The maximum charge for receiving such a call will be €0.16 per minute. Travellers should pay no more than €0.11 per SMS sent (the current EU average is €0.29), and will no longer pay for receiving a roaming voicemail message while in the EU. Costs for surfing the web and downloading data on mobile phones while abroad will also be more transparent in the EU, with protection against "bill shocks". The European Parliament considered the proposed cap € 1.00 per Mb for data roaming (e.g. downloading and sending emails from mobiles) too high and lowered it to €0.50, but changed the measurement to Kb to avoid rounding up. We expect these decisions to become official in the next weeks. They will come into effect in all Member States without additional decisions on the national level.

4. Fixed and Mobile Termination Rates

INTUG is encouraged by EU progress on reducing these charges, which are highly inconsistent and many times greater than cost. A steeper glide path extended to 2012 has broad agreement, with some protection for new entrants. The latest EU proposals would reduce Mobile Termination Rates by 70% over the next 3 years. This has become a key issue, not just in the EU, but globally, and is seen as an anti-competitive tax on trade. Unfortunately, there are no further decreases in the mobile termination rates foreseen for Belgium! The next step is not expected until the beginning of 2010.

5. Asia Pacific

Many large countries in the region are world leaders in broadband, helped along by high-density populations in apartment buildings, which makes infrastructure easier and cheaper to deploy. Smaller Asia-Pacific countries, including Australia and New Zealand, are also showing a strong determination to use communications technology for economic advantage and social development. This is demonstrated by government commitment in both countries to contributing large scale funding to accelerate development. INTUG is an official guest organisation at APECTel (the APEC Telecommunications and IT Working Group), playing an important role in policy-setting in the region. INTUG was represented at the APECTel meeting, in Singapore from 13-18 April, participating in steering groups and helping organise an Industry Roundtable. The meeting included special workshops on international mobile roaming charges, submarine cable protection, universal access, and safer Internet environments for children.

6. United States

Following input made to the Obama transition team through one of INTUG’s associate members (Paul Budde) arguing for a competitive open architecture for telecommunications, user input to the Presidential team has shifted to “Smart Telecoms”. It shows how joined up electronic government can improve the speed and quality of information-based public services, and how communications can generate economic growth and cost efficiencies. Telecoms is increasingly seen as an engine of global growth, and the Barack Obama administration is welcoming ideas on how to harness the powers of telecommunications.

Agenda

April 28 X-change on Experiences with web conferencing, collaboration and unified communications  (ICT Decision makers only 10:00-16:30) May 19 BELTUG/INTUG International Meeting - Open markets for Communications in Tomorrow's World   May 27 Member Forum - a whole day on Mobility/working anywhere  Salons De Romree  June 23 Member Forum - The future of voice communications  More information can be found on our webagenda.