Bled, Slovenia, hosted the 25-26 May 13th meeting of the ERG, during which a common position was adopted on wholesale international roaming (WIR), which should subsequently be put up for public consultation.
The 32 attending regulators decided, still in the context of this wholesale roaming offer, that the European Commission defined analysis of market 17 could begin, and also to set up a working group with the mission of identifying measures to promote tariff transparency.
The wholesale broadband markets were another subject of debate: the German national regulatory authority presented a report on this subject, to be published on the ERG website.
The British regulator presented a number of possible criteria for future revision of the document on remedies.
In the wake of the public consultation, the plenary session likewise adopted a common position adding a chapter on cable networks to the common position on wholesale bitstream access.
The European Commission announced that it plans to go ahead in 2006 with revision of the current regulatory framework for electronic communications. To that end a consultation has already been launched with respect to the revision of universal service; plans call for the reworking the recommendation on relevant markets by the end of 2005.
A decision was also made to publish a common position on guidelines for cost accounting and separation, complementing the Commission Recommendation on the same subject.
Also considered were the mid-term revision of the ERG working programme for 2005 and the priority issues to include in the working programme for 2006 (including revision of the current regulatory framework, the voice over internet protocol, broadband, next generation networks, margin squeezing, joint dominance, cross-border issues and interconnection).
The next ERG meeting is scheduled for 22-23 September in Copenhagen.
