Herbert Ungerer - Telecom Reform Conference

Back to the roots: The 1987Telecom Green Paper 25 yearsafter -Has European telecomliberalisation fulfilled its promisefor Europe in the Internet age

Back to 1987From monopolies to anew era

The Green Paper:• Liberalisation: overall goal but in a phasedapproach. Full liberalisation in 1998• Structural: break-up of the link betweenoperations and regulation / the emergence of theNRAs, the National Regulatory Authorities, andof the telecom operators in their new commercialset-up• Scale: Community-wide markets for marketgrowth

Readying Europe for the Internet• Full liberalisation i of data and valueadded services as early as 1993• Rapid emergence of Internet ServiceProviders• The recipe for success: Fromdistance to time to flat, under theimpact of competition

Digital Mobile communications: thetriumph of Europe-wide scale• The GSM Directive of 1987: overcomingthe national radiofrequency fragmentation• The Mobile Green Paper: liberalisation ofmobile markets• The Mobile Communications Directive of1995: parallel licensing of competitiveGSM in all Member States

Reaping the benefits –the post-1998 period

Price of national call in EU27 1998 – 2008Source:European Commission

Mobile Growth Rate in EU (subscribersin000) 1996 – 2006Source: European Commission

Source: European Commission

Source: European Commission

Market fragmentation« While the current EU regulatory framework has broughtbenefits to European citizens in terms of innovative andincreasingly affordable electronic communicationsservices…..consumer and businesses are still faced with 27different markets and thus not able to take advantage of theeconomic potential of a single market »« The rapid growth witnessed since liberalisation has slowed inrecent years….. »15th Progress Report on the European Electronic15th Progress Report on the European ElectronicCommunications Market 2009, European Commission

Global shifting of market weightsFrom Europe and US to Asia

The Internet in 2012: user shares• Asia: 45%• Europe and Russia: 22%• North America: 12 %

Profound moves within themarketsFrom networks to platformsGoogle, Facebook, eBay, AmazonApple and Android market places

From mobile phones to smartphones and tabletsThe new actors:Apple and Samsung, iOS andAndroid

The Digital Agenda• The EU 2020 Framework: The DigitalAgenda as one of the flagships• The 2009 reform of the ElectronicCommunications Framework• The creation of BEREC, the Body ofEuropean Regulators for ElectronicCommunications: will it overcome thecentrifugal forces or conserve the statusquo of regulatory fragmentation

The Digital Agenda cont• A comprehensive scheme up to 2020 based on 8 pillars and101 policy actions• Will Europe develop the necessary focus on keybottlenecks: fragmented radiocommuncations markets andwireless broadband; copyright reform and copyrightmanagement in Europe; Next Generation Network plans• Global Internet arena: Will Europe present a forcefulposition• Digital Scoreboard 2011: Will Europe sustain currentprogress under the financial crisis and resulting budgetconstraints

Back to the roots• Focus on liberalisation and investment:NGA will be the test case• Focus on scale: national regulation keepsmarkets national / will the Europeandimension prevail ?• Focus on the future: the introduction ofmobile 4G / LTE systems - the immediatechallenge ahead

Creating the right regulatoryconditions for growth inEurope