Reforming the regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services: Implementation Appraisal

Briefing 25-08-2016

A set of legislative and non-legislative proposals to reform the regulatory framework for eCommunications is expected in September 2016. At the time of writing this briefing, the REFIT evaluation of the current framework was still ongoing and is likely to be published only together with the proposals. In the meantime, the results of the dedicated public consultation held by the European Commission in 2015 confirmed the framework's overall effectiveness in fostering competition and, to a certain extent, citizens' interests. The relevance and EU added value of the framework were also confirmed, as stakeholders agreed that some form of ex ante regulation of the sector would still be needed in the future to maintain competition. Conversely, the consultation together with other studies and publications analysing the framework's implementation indicated that results in terms of creating a true internal market for eCommunications remain mixed. In particular, market fragmentation can still be observed and a certain degree of inconsistency in the regulatory approaches followed by NRAs has been highlighted. Efficiency is another dimension where areas for improvement have been identified.