A green paper on mobile communications currently being drafted by the European Commission’s directorate general for telecommunications, information industries and innovation – DG XIII – has aroused the interest of the UK’s Civil Land Mobile Radio Committee, CLMRC, which has just made its own submission to the Commission. Among the issues to be addressed by the original green paper – which the Commission is hoping to release by the end of the year – is the separation of regulatory and operational functions, and the introduction of local loop competition via radio tails, both of which are sensitive areas to most post and telecommunications monopolies in Europe. While some fear that PTT hostility may hamper the support of key figures in the process of translating the paper from its draft version into a full green paper, the D2 – the department of DG XIII that handles telecommunications – is determined to push ahead with its proposals. D2 will be dependent on the support of countries like the UK to generate backing for its initiative to get through a paper that clearly proposes that European Community member states license competitive services to the PTT for a range of mobile services. The UK Civil Land Mobile Radio Committee, whose members include the Department of Trade & Industry – although the Department has not officially endosed the committee’s recommendations – has also sent its own set of slightly bolder proposals to DG IV, the competition directorate which is keen to push for liberalisation in telecommunications, suggesting that the Commission paper should contain positive indications that the monopoly of European PTTs will reduce in the future; that the frequency provisions are adequate to accommodate future mobile requirements, with a balance between private and public services; that appropriate technologies and standards are available in good time; and that there is adequate competition to motivate the market. The UK committee, writes Mobile Communications is also adamant that the green paper should address the issue of interconnection between mobile and fixed networks, to ensure that public mobile service providers have access to fixed networks. Standardisation is another key issue highlighted – the CLMRC says this is one of several areas in which Europe lags behind Japan and the US, and asserts that the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, ETSI, should speed up standardisation of new services.
