Telecoms regulator reviewing proposals sent to EU Commission

The Malta Communications Authority has decided to have a fresh look at certain proposals aimed at enhancing competition and regulation in two telecommunication sectors after it transpired that these might be a conflict with EU rules.

The proposals affected the wholesale broadband access market and the broadcasting transmission services aimed at delivering broadcast content to end users, two out of 18 markets regulated by the EU's Electronic Communications Framework Directive.

According to a report issued by the Commission yesterday, Brussels found there are serious doubts on whether the measures proposed by the MCA to address market failures in the two sectors in question are compatible with EU rules. Thus, the MCA decided to withdraw its proposals pending further talks.

According to EU rules, national regulatory authorities are required, in consultation with the industry, to analyse their national electronic communications markets and propose appropriate regulatory measures to address any failures. They should then notify their findings and proposed measures to the Commission. On its part, the EU executive will then asses the submitted analysis and if it considers the proposed measures to create a barrier to the single market, or has serious doubts as to its compatibility with EU law, the Commission would open an investigation that would require a regulator to withdraw the proposed measure.

Malta has already submitted its analysis on 17 of the 18 communications markets with 12 already approved by the Commission. It is one of five member states which has not yet notified the Commission about the analysis of the entire 18 markets and the analysis dealing with the wholesale national market for international roaming on public mobile networks is still pending. For this reason, last October the Commission sent a letter of formal notice to Malta for failure to carry out all market analysis on time.

Within the entire EU context, the Commission's report states that although telecoms rules have led to significant benefits for citizens and enterprise alike, important challenges remain for national and European regulators.

The report presents the results of 600 draft regulatory decisions sent to the Commission by the 27 EU national regulators.

The Commission said its rules has led to more coherent market analysis, greater transparency and ensured that regulation only exists in markets that require it in order to be competitive.

However, the Commission's report also found that, in a number of cases, the solutions national regulators apply in order to remedy the absence of competition vary, leading to the risk of a fragmentation on the internal telecoms market to the detriment of customers and operators with pan-European business activities.