A single market with 27 regulators

8/13/2019 A single market with 27 regulators

1/16

wan SutherlandLINK Centre, Wits University

CRIDS, University of Namur

Coordinating market regulation across the EU21 June 2013 London
http://ssrn.com/author=927092


2/16

Scotland: Yet another regulator; or Some complex extra-legal, pseudo-federal network governance

International mobile roaming: 25 years of regulatory activities (1996-2022) 9 years of statutory price controls (2007-2016) A failure to address tax havens Precious little to do with a single market

Operators: Reduced their geographic footprints Actively pursuing consolidation within member states

Telecommunications regulators: Ensuring their independence

Entrenching their position A Gordian knot of network governance

Single market for telecommunications: Neither the same as nor a prerequisite for the Digital Single Market There are neither measures of nor data on harmonisation What benefits are there for consumers and enterprises?

Ewan Sutherland, June 2013, Coordinating market regulation across the EU 2


3/16

One of the four UK nations Plebiscite due in September 2014

Presumed to be(come) a member state of EU

Would need a new set of regulatory bodies: OFCOM, CMA, CAT, GCHQ, OTA2, ASA, etc.

With its own network governance

Split the licences

Split the markets Argued to be closer to the people

SNP wants to aggregate all regulators



4/16

Polling evidence says Scotland will stay in UK Need to rethink devolution:

Will additional powers be transferred?

How to channel political and community

messages to regulators? Engage with complex non-transparent

network governance coordination in: Scotland

United Kingdom European Union

How to channel and coordinate state aid? Little evidence of preparation for this revamp



5/16

Original deal was to deliver economies ofscale for GSM manufacturers

Operators would get to enter new markets

A few premium customers could roam: Handsets would not need further approval

Home country numbers would be used abroad

Up to 15 per cent surcharge on home prices

The issue of high prices identified in 1998 Commissioner van Miert authorised initial

investigation in 1999



6/16

Never expected to be a 25-year problem Without exception everyone made mistakes

Few admit those mistakes: Commissioner Kroes recanted her views

Price regulation is very crude but effective

However, there was no bounce in demand

Structural remedies will not work

Why has roaming taken up so much time? What is it diverting attention from?

Minimal relevance for the internal market



7/16

Regulators have been investigating operatorcosts for years or decades

The issue of the use tax havens has neverbeen raised

Yet not paying (much) tax greatly affectscosts

Regulators have a massive trans-national

network which could address such matters


They also failed to spot corruption


8/16

Old complaints about leased lines On-going U.S. regulation of special access Service providers failed in alliances Then they created their own networks:

Acquired networks from customers Built facilities in foreign countries Leased facilities from incumbent operators

Some recent complaints from service

providers about incumbent operators Never added mobile to fixed VPNs:

A real market failure



9/16

A long process to persuade member states: Disinterest Incomprehension Lack of tradition

Gradual improvements

EC still pressing member states Romania, Spain, Netherlands, etc.

NRAs now seen to be permanent Sunset clauses have failed Regulation will never end

But, do we still need the NRAs? They have not delivered competition Market analyses and remedies will continue for years They cannot deliver a telecoms internal market Could use big data instead



10/16

Communications Committee (COCOM) Radio Spectrum Committee (RSC) Article 7 procedures Associations and groups:

Independent Regulators Group European Regulators Group I European Regulators Group II Body of European Regulators of Electronic

Communications (BEREC)

Enduring divergences arise from: Transposition of directives Implementation by regulators Decisions by national appellate bodies Unanticipated creativity of national regulators



11/16

Single European Act: To be completed in 1992

Liikanen contribution to Lisbon Agenda: the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based

economy in the world

Monti Report on the internal market: No digital internal market Digital single market represented a one-off500 billion

potential boost to EU GDP

Jobs and Growth 2020

Digital Agenda for Europe A digital supply chain Digital invoicing


A radical legislative compromiseCommissioner Neelie Kroes


12/16

Action 18: Harmonisation of numbering regimes Action 19: Spectrum Policy plan Action 20: Investigate the cost of non-Europe in the

telecoms market Action 42: Adopt an EU broadband communication

Action 43: Funding for high-speed broadband Action 44: European Spectrum Policy Programme Action 45: Foster the deployment of NGA networks Action 48: Use structural funds to finance the roll-out

of high-speed networks

Action 49: Implementing the European Radio SpectrumPolicy Programme in Member States Action 101: Look for durable solutions for voice and

data roaming by 2012


http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/our-goals/


13/16

Digital Single Market: Is very much more than a single telecoms market

Does not require a single telecoms market

What would it require? A single regulator:

Commissioner Reding at BITKOM

Commissioner Kroes on Monday not pragmatic

A single number for Europe:

European Telephony Number Space Multi-country spectrum assignments:

GMPCS



14/16

No single market with 27+ regulators Tighter coordination will take decades

Better/easier just to get rid of the NRAs If you want a telecommunications single market

Roaming regulation is an abomination Not based on competition or market analyses

Do not appear to be real consumer benefits

from a single telecommunications market



15/16

International mobile roaming: Market definition(s)

Market failure(s)

Regulation: What was roaming regulation diverting us from?

How might we measure harmonisation?

Trans-national services for business

Measuring harmonisation

Operators geographic scope

What comes after ladders of investment?



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Ewan Sutherland

sutherla [at] gmail.com

http://anti-corruption-telecoms.blogspot.com/

http://www.ssrn.com/author=927092

+44 141 649 4040

skype://sutherla

Ewan Sutherland June 2013 Coordinating market regulation across the EU 16

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A single market with 27 regulators