Public consultation on the new Roaming Regulation

9 July 2012

BEREC is launching public consultations on two draft BEREC documents, as follows:  

1)      Draft BEREC Guidelines on the application of Article 3 of the Roaming Regulation – Wholesale Roaming Access

According to Article 3 of the new Roaming Regulation1, mobile network operators (MNOs) must meet all reasonable requests for wholesale roaming access, comprising direct wholesale roaming access and wholesale roaming resale access.

This document discusses the guidance which BEREC is required to publish under the regulation relating to the operation of Article 3 in practice.

2)      Draft Roaming Regulation – Choice of the Decoupling Method – A consultation to assist BEREC in preparing advice to the Commission on its forthcoming Implementing Act

Article 5 of the new Roaming Regulation defines the right of “alternative providers” (ARPs) to request the services and facilities necessary to offer separate regulated roaming services to the customers of any provider. It also sets out explicitly that local provision of data services by a visited network operator is to be one of the chosen methods of decoupling. Although the regulation provides criteria to be followed to implement the facilities to be provided by domestic providers, the detailed rules and specific technical solutions for the implementation of these facilities are not defined in the regulation.

It is the responsibility of the Commission, after obtaining an opinion from BEREC and taking into account the views of the Member States expressed in COCOM, to prepare an “Implementing Act” which sets out more explicitly than the regulation the detailed rules and specific technical solution/s that would meet the criteria defined in the regulation.

To assist the Commission, BEREC has prepared this document which provides the Commission with an assessment of the pros and cons of the different possible decoupling solutions.

            Stakeholders are invited to send their comments on any of the issues presented in these documents preferably in English, to e-mail: [email protected]  not later than 10 August 2012

BEREC will hold also a public hearing on the draft documents at the Auditorium of the European Commission, DG AGRICULTURE, Rue de la Loi, 102  (L102), Brussels, B 1040, Belgium, on 19 July 2012, from 10.00 to 13.30.

The hearing is open to all interested parties but prior registration is required for all those attending. If you wish to attend, please complete the enclosed registration form and return it by e-mail to [email protected] by 16 July 2012.