The modus operandi of the European Commission in policy matters related to the electronic communications market was laid bare at this year’s CAEC conference in Prague.
At the same time, delegates were given useful insights into the main issues currently affecting the Czech industry, in particular copyright and – perhaps surprisingly – legal disputes over unpaid invoices.
Fabio Colasanti, president of the Institute of Communications (IIC), was quite blunt in his advice to cable operators and alternative carriers in their dealings with Brussels. Put simply, they have to make their voices heard, as at present, despite its best intentions, the Commission is only listening to those that shout the loudest, namely the incumbents.
Colasanti also cast some light on some of the biggest issues currently being debated by the Commission. These include the particularly controversial one of the role of regulators.
Put simply, the functions that regulators perform relate to a previous age, not taking into account the convergence to IP. Should they now be solely responsible for overseeing what is effectively the “transport of bits”?
Although this idea is apparently gathering pace, regulators hate it as it would effectively “see their scope for action reduced by half.”
Colasanti also discussed the issue of competition, and in particular the surprising results of a study undertaken at Harvard. This showed that in the case of several industries, among them telecoms, there comes a point after which too much competition has the reverse of the desired effect.
Such a conclusion runs counter to accepted dogma and could have far-reaching implications if it were to ever be considered by policy makers.
Dr Marianne Klingbell, deputy secretary general, EC, meanwhile cast light on the way European legislation is now prepared.
The aim is to be “proportionate, efficient and effective”, and the way to do this is through what are known as ‘impact assessments’.
These apply logical thinking to the whole process and have to be both clear and explain the problem being addressed.
Indeed, added Dr Klingbell, “all our documents and proposals come with an impact assessment.”
Another issued touch upon by Dr Klingbell and Colasanti was that of the Commission’s policy vis-à-vis high-speed internet access.
Commenting on the moderator’s statement that it had been decided to make such access a requirement in all new properties, both were genuinely surprised.
Dr Klingbell said that such a decision would not have been made without a full consultation – including, of course, impact assessments – while Colosanti felt it probably referred to wiring rather than access itself. Colosanti was also of the view that such a decision should be made by individual countries rather than on a European level.
Marek Ebert, the deputy chairman of the Czech Telecommunications Office (CTO) Council, director of the section for regulation, meanwhile used his keynote presentation to outline some of the key issues that the regulator is facing.
One of these issues is that of unpaid invoices in disputes between operators and their customers. Rather than being dealt with in courts, they considered by the CTO, which is finding the whole matter “a burden”.
The scale of the problem was highlighted by Miroslav Uricar, general counsel, legal, regulatory and external affairs, T-Mobile Czech Republic, who said that outstanding bills not paid by subscribers currently amounted to CZK1 billion (€38.5 million), while the number of cases pending or unsolved stood at 400,000.
Martin Cach, data protection officer, UPC, meanwhile made the observation that there are now 12 bodies looking after consumer protection in the Czech Republic. This was too many and people did not know which one to turn to.
In a discussion on amendments to the Copyright Act, Pavel Zeman, director of the copyright department, Ministry of Culture, said that the legislation is hopelessly outdated and it would be better to start from scratch.
Karel Zalud, head of legal department, UPC, went even further to say that copyright is dead and regulation is not the only way to manage some areas.
The Czech Republic’s transition to digital broadcasting was a relatively smooth affair and the country now finds itself with four multiplexes.
Although it does not as yet have pay-DTT services – interestingly, their launch is imminent in neighbouring Slovakia – Marcel Prochazka the head of business development and strategy at Ceske Radiokomunikace (CRa), said that they would almost certain prove a success once available.
One of the reasons for this is that pay-TV penetration in the Czech Republic is still low by European standards.
On the other hand, it will probably be a while before DVB-T2 has been deployed in the country.
