Telecoms

Our European activities in relation to telecoms fall within Ofcoms strategic priority to engage with the development of international regulatory frameworks within which the UK, Ofcom and our stakeholders operate, to ensure that they are practical, proportionate and serve the interests of UK citizens and consumers.

This relates in particular to our engagement with the European institutions (as the Commission develops its European Digital Agenda and puts forward legislative and non-legislative proposals) and with communications regulators in other European countries and around the world, both bilaterally and through regulatory networks such as the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC). Both these types of engagement help us to pursue a coherent and coordinated approach to international communications regulation.

Our aim is to contribute constructively to European legislation that impacts on our duties and responsibilities and that affects UK citizens and consumers, including areas such as broadband roll-out, USO, copyright enforcement and consumer protection.

We do so by working closely with the UK Government (the Department for Culture, Media & Sport - DCMS) and the UK Permanent Representation to the European Union (UKRep), with regard to the development and implementation of new EU legislation. We also work closely with the European Commission, and with other national regulators in the EU through BEREC, to ensure a consistent application of the EU regulatory framework. In addition, we aim to respond to relevant European Commission initiatives, including non-legislative ones. Some recent examples include our contributions to consultations on the Digital Agenda, State Aid and Broadband and the NGA Recommendation, as well as those related to consumer policy, such as consumer complaints and ADR systems.

This year, we will be following closely the development of Commissions guidance on Universal Service and Net Neutrality, as well as any further Commission initiatives in relation to NGA (including the revision of the State Aid Guidelines and any guidance on NGA costing methodologies).

We have specific duties and powers under the EU Regulatory Framework for electronic communications networks and services. As such, we are actively involved in the implementation of the EU regulatory framework, a recently revised version of which entered into force on 26 May 2011. We liaise closely with the European Commission, providing information for data gathering and benchmarking purposes such as the Commission's Annual Implementation Reports, and actively participate in the Communications Committee.

For telecoms benchmarking purposes Ofcom also contributes to the annual ECTA scorecard exercise.

Ofcom also regularly follows and contributes to the development of Commission Guidelines and Recommendations on various policy issues, some of which relate to the implementation of the EU regulatory framework. Ofcom has a duty to carry out market reviews in order to assess the level of competition in the relevant markets as per the Commission's List of Relevant Markets, and to notify the Commission of regulatory decisions in accordance with the Article 7 notification process .

Ofcom is an active member of BEREC - the successor of the European Regulators Group (ERG) - where it devotes significant resources to ensure its success and the delivery of its work programme. BERECs work covers, among other issues, net neutrality, regulatory remedies for NGA, the promotion of competition in superfast broadband and mobile roaming.

Ofcom also represents the UK Government on telecommunications issues in the International Telecommunication Union sectors for Standardisation (ITU-T) and Development (ITU-D), as well as at the OECD.