BEREC opens public consultations on 5G and End-Users and evaluates the Net Neutrality Regulation

Today BEREC Chair Johannes Gungl presented the outcomes of the 37^th Plenary Meetings to the public. This Public Debriefing by the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications was held in Brussels, Belgium.

Net Neutrality

The published documents included BEREC’s highly anticipated Opinion for the evaluation of the application of Regulation (EU) 2015/2120 and the BEREC Net Neutrality Guidelines. The objective of this Opinion is to provide input, based on BEREC’s experience with the application of the Regulation and the BEREC Net Neutrality Guidelines, to the European Commission’s report to the European Parliament and the Council on the review of the Regulation, which is due by 30 April 2019.

According to BEREC Chair Johannes Gungl, the application of both the Regulation and Guidelines is working well: “Both the Regulation and the Guidelines could be considered as striking a balance between the views of many different stakeholders taking into account the objectives of protecting end-users’ rights and simultaneously guaranteeing the continued functioning of the internet ecosystem as an engine of innovation”.

5G

BEREC also initiated a public consultation, which is open until 18 January 2019, on the draft BEREC Common Position on Mobile Infrastructure Sharing. The Common Position provides definitions for several types of sharing agreements, as well as the main objectives to be pursued when considering infrastructure-sharing agreements. Furthermore, it offers parameters to consider when assessing infrastructure-sharing agreements. “The Common Position also gives background information on the applicable legal framework, as well as the benefits and drawbacks related to sharing agreements,” added Johannes Gungl.

End-Users

In today’s electronic communications markets, contracts between providers and end-users take different forms and cover various categories of information. It is important that such contracts provide clear and relevant information in a manner that is easily understandable and accessible, helping end-users to take informed decisions when acquiring or terminating electronic communications services.

Therefore, BEREC published its Draft Report on Termination of Contracts and Switching of Provider, which is open for public consultation until 18 January 2019. “The interests of end-users are at the centre of BEREC’s actions. With a strategic objective of empowering and protecting end-users, BEREC regularly addresses relevant issues in its work programmes, such as the availability of contract information, transparent and comparable tariffs, or equivalent access for disabled end-users,” said Johannes Gungl.

Two other public consultations

Other than these three documents, BEREC Chair Johannes Gungl also invited all stakeholders to participate in two other public consultations on the Draft BEREC Report on Access to Physical Infrastructure in Market Analyses and the Draft BEREC Report on a Set of Indicators to Measure the Internet of Things (IoT), both open until 23 January 2019.

Work Programme 2019

Finally, the BEREC Work Programme 2019 was presented. It reflects BEREC’s commitment to serve as a body for thoughtful and proactive debate and advice for the European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission in the field of electronic communications. In 2019 and 2020, BEREC will develop in total twelve sets of guidelines, including one on the criteria a network has to fulfil to be considered as a “very high capacity network” (VHCN), one to assess the sustainability of the domestic pricing model and an update to BEREC’s Guidelines on Net Neutrality. Eleven out of these twelve Guidelines derive from the new European Electronic Communications Code, reflecting the trust and responsibility the legislator has placed on BEREC.

New BEREC Chair and BEREC Vice-Chairs

In 2019 BEREC will be chaired by Jeremey Godfrey (ComReg, Ireland) together with five Vice-Chairs: newly elected Tanja Muha (AKOS, Slovenia), Marcin Cichy (UKE, Poland) and Konstantinos Masselos (EETT, Greece), an outgoing BEREC Chair Johannes Gungl (RTR, Austria) and incoming BEREC Chair 2020 Dan Sjöblom (PTS, Sweden).

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 Budapest, Hungary on 7-8 March 2019.