In the Industry Committee, MEPs did not opt for the liberalisation of the management of the radiofrequency spectrum. The European Commission had proposed it in order to boost mobile services and broadband internet. The rapporteur in the European Parliament, Catherine Trautmann (PES, France), explains that this “public resource,” which also depends on an international agenda, should continue to be managed by member states ⁽¹⁾.

What are you changing in the management of radiofrequencies in Europe?

We are maintaining member states’ competence, but we want to motivate them to coordinate better, to consider the resource with an obligation to efficiency, as the Commission also wants. We have reintroduced the principles in spectrum management as we wanted. Which gives us more coherence in decisions, more technological development, better sharing of the spectrum and a greater value. For example, we are opening the possibility of recognising cross-border services.

What will become of the Commission’s decision making competences for certain frequencies?

The Commission does not have a mandate for the whole world. I was in favour of the Commission possibly having an international negotiation mandate. But member states do not want that, for the moment. So let’s move to another phase. We want to unblock and retain the mixed character of this resource, which is both public and private, commercial and non-commercial. Not everything is resolved on the market. The proposal that the Commission made constituted in saying that we settle the problems by opening the market. We have responded that the Commission cannot impose it however it wants.

Will you retain the principles of technological and service neutrality which would allow a provider to produce all services through all technologies within a frequency bandwidth which will be assigned to it by a member state?

Yes, but we have redefined them. Technological neutrality is linked to interoperability [compatibility between different systems]. Service neutrality, we’re not so sure about that. Everyone agreed. Initially, there were ayatollahs talking about ‘net neutrality’ and, ultimately, that turned out to be a lot more complicated. So we said ‘OK’ for technological neutrality, it is absolutely indispensable to be able to fairly develop technologies. However, service neutrality will be built up little by little thanks to this better usage of the spectrum.

Will standardisation decisions be possible?

Absolutely, simply, we pulled from the Commission’s proposal the urgent argument aiming to justify somewhat regalian interventions. We want an anticipated vision rather than an a posteriori intervention.

What will happen with the ‘digital dividend’ of frequencies freed by the changeover from analog to digital television?

We have had a communication on the digital dividend. Member states will do it. Giving half to mobile operators (as Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reading wanted) is still to be seen, from the moment that it is member states that hold the key. If they are given orders, they end up particularly exasperated. They are aware of the stakes. But take the case of Spain: broadcasters have held a part of the bandwidth for 20 years, which the Commission was thinking of giving to telecoms operators. That was discussed. And, furthermore, we also consider that there is not only the dividend linked to the changeover in television. There is dividend on the whole spectrum, on all kinds of frequencies. That is why member states can reconstruct the spectrum. And that is why we propose that that conference is held (between the EU27) on the spectrum, on the different types of bandwidths. How will they manage them? What will the reconstruct? For whom? How will they develop pan-European services? How will they monitor the consequences of the current climate changes? How will they protect themselves against environmental risks and other risks? The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA), moreover, must be reconsidered in accordance with these objectives. Beginning with the options that we have taken, they hope to start straight away. It is a faster speed of execution if we proceed as we have proposed. We hope that the conference on the spectrum will be organised at the opening of the next legislative term (the European elections will be held in June 2009).

⁽¹⁾ The Trautmann report concerns the revision of Framework Directive 2002/21/EC for telecommunication networks and services, and Directives 2002/19/EC on access to networks and 2002/20/EC on the authorisation of electronic networks and services.