Sunday, February 13, 2011

Spain - Govt has proposed changes to legislation, including for high speed broadband

[lexology] In accordance with its announced intention of transforming and adapting the Telecoms Sector to the EU Telecom Package, the Spanish Government has been taking important steps. In December 2010, the Ministry of Industry issued a report on the draft Bill on Telecommunications in General which is to the reform of Act 32/2003 of 3 November 2003 (on Telecommunications in General). Two of the diverse proposals are particularly worth mentioning:

The amendment of the powers and functioning of the regulatory bodies, and the strengthening of the powers of the Telecommunications Commission (NRA). In this sense, it is worth noting that the draft Bill provides that the Data Protection Agency shall carry out its activities on the telecommunications market for the purposes of protection and use of personal data.

The establishment of a more appropriate framework for investment in the deployment of new generation networks, which offer Internet access speeds above 100 Mbits per second.

The Ministry of Industry has also produced a draft Royal Decree on Actions in the area of Radio Spectrum for the Development of the Digital Society (expected to be enacted in March 2011), which will generalise authorisations to operators in order to implement the principles of technological neutrality and service, as well as the resale of radio spectrum, while opening new tendering processes for most of the radio spectrum. By accomplishing these objectives, the spectrum dedicated to mobile communications services is expected to increase by 70%.

The Spanish government rekindles the reform of the telecommunication sector

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