Press release - Preparing the 5G landscape: BEREC holds a debriefing on important documents for the European Electronic Communications Market

Today, BEREC Chair Johannes Gungl presented the outcomes of the 35^th Plenary Meetings to the public. This Public Debriefing by the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications was held in Brussels, Belgium.

Gungl put emphasise on the important work BEREC conducts to facilitate a fast and smooth deployment of 5G in Europe. An illustrated document introduced five key documents to contribute to this goal. All five of them are planned to be published this year, whereas two of them were already presented during this Public Debriefing.

5G and Mobile: Minimising costs, mutual understanding and engagement

There are clear benefits to achieving a common understanding of how to monitor mobile coverage. The BEREC Common Position on Monitoring Mobile Coverage will facilitate a mutual understanding and foster a consistent approach on how this information can be made available and understandable throughout Europe.

“To enhance the outcome of this Common Position, we really want to hear the stakeholder’s opinion on the technical specifications and common thresholds for monitoring mobile coverage in Europe. Therefore, we kindly invite them to participate in the public consultation starting today”, said Gungl.

The second document presented was a Report on Infrastructure Sharing. “5G is based on small cells, meaning more base stations are needed for it to work properly. To help minimise the cost and boost the speed of 5G deployment, BEREC gathered information on infrastructure sharing across Europe”, explained Gungl.

Market and Economic Analysis: Estimating price effects of mergers

The European telecommunications market shows tendencies for more concentration, which has effects on the work of the national regulatory authorities (NRAs). Therefore, a Report on Mergers and Acquisitions by BEREC contributes to the literature on the estimation of post-merger price effects of three mergers in the European mobile market:

• Hutchison/Orange merger in Austria (2013);
• Hutchison/Telefónica (brands: 3 and O2) merger in Ireland (2014);
• Telefónica/KPN (brands: O2 and E-Plus) merger in Germany (2014).

“Bedsides the effects of mergers and acquisitions on prices, this report also provides some evidence on effect on Quality of Service for Austria and Germany”, underlines Gungl.

Next Generation Network: Descriptive analysis

In order to get a deeper insight into “Layer 2 Wholesale Access Products” and to contribute to consistent access products as well as to foster the knowledge transfer between NRAs, Gungl presented a Report on the L2 WAP / advanced bitstream offers for undertakings (M4). It analyses L2 WAPs imposed on market 4 with a focus on advanced bitstream products (not including Ethernet leased lines).

A full list of public documents adopted at the plenary meetings is available on the BEREC website. The next BEREC plenary meetings will be held in Portorož, Slovenia on 4-5 October 2018
.