Regulation Report 2006 mentioned the atypical regulatory year it represented, both due to Sonaecom's initial public offer (IPO) on PT, and to the change of almost the entire Board of Administrators of ICP-ANACOM, which on top, fully coincided with the development of the IPO process.
The rejection of that offer on the first months of 2007, on one hand, reinstated the normality in the development of regulatory issues, but on the other hand, its secondary effects took no time to reach the electronic communications market in Portugal, namely by the end of 2007, when PT Multimédia's formal spin-off from Grupo PT took place, greatly as a consequence of the reaction to the IPO.
This event had a considerable impact on the regulatory challenges faced, adding to other challenges that the Administration had already identified as demanding, or continuing to demand, a swift answer, namely:
''The developments of the ''2006 Review'', without forgetting the institutional evolution of EU's regulation, the liberalization of posts, the evolution of the US in the electronic communications and the posts, the market analysis and their possible re-definition under the ''2006 Review'' and the enlargement of ''convergence'', weighting the re-evaluation of the criteria for the application of the regime of penalties so that it becomes an effective item in the discouragement of non-fulfilments and violations to the legislative and regulatory framework, the spreading of broadband, not forgetting the role of mobile telephony, the launch of digital terrestrial television and the development of mobile television and, lastly, but not less important, the review of the national frequency allocation plan, supported on a scenery of neutral technology and aiming at a more efficient spectrum use, also with the contribution of a new tariff proposal.''
Reading the current report fully confirms these forecasts, and ICP-ANACOM's regulatory activity tried to reach the answers to these challenges, some of which are obviously recurring, notwithstanding the fact that they offer new qualities, that fortunately demand differentiating answers, to which sometimes the more or less necessary formalism and methodologies that have characterized the regulatory approach have some inertia to adapt.
We allow ourselves to select three major points from the previously mentioned challenges, for the reflexes they will have on years to come, namely on the understanding that regulation can and should be dynamic and agile.
Firstly, the so-called ''2006 Review'', which complexity is confirmed by the dragging on of the works connected to it, namely resulting from the existence of different views on the way to build the electronic communications internal market (which still (?) doesn't exit). The main difficulties for reaching an agreement between NRAs and the EC lay on these different views. ICP-ANACOM understands that it must be a gradual process and that the principle of subsidiarity must prevail, whenever it is justified, which doesn’t hinder, but actually fosters growing cooperation among NRAs and with the EC.
In this scope, it must be taken into account that electronic communications are the sole industry where the EC has powers to define national regulation guidelines, through the veto it holds regarding market analysis and which it has tried to extend to remedies, due to the alleged need for regulatory coherence lacking in the internal market, situations that are rejected by most NRAs.
This is not the least reason for the immediate opposition regarding the proposal for the launch of an institution that, without being a real European regulatory agency, would enable the EC to gain powers that now belong to the NRAs, with its informal organization, IRG, understanding that it is still not the time (if ever) to become centralized.
The Portuguese presence was particularly relevant on this matter, not only through ICP-ANACOM, on numerous reunions with the EC and with the active presence on working groups, contact networks and on the ITG/ERG plenary meetings, but also through the influence and the significant results obtained during the Portuguese Presidency on the second quarter of 2007, with highlight to the approval of the Postal Directive.
It is undeniable that the decisions at the European level will growingly condition national regulatory decisions. ICP-ANACOM's presence and role intensified during 2007, as could not happen otherwise, and will not slow down in 2008.
One of the examples of EC's influence at the national level is the delay in the non-withdrawal of the conditions of the implementation of the GSM Directive (which, it should be recognized, had its high point in good time), which prevents the implementation of ICP-ANACOM's decision allowing the refarming of the 900 MHz band, and the consequent more competitive development of mobile broadband.
In fact, this example leads us to the second point that we wish to highlight and which is, undeniably, the spreading of broadband, largely due to the development of mobile broadband, with a growth rate in Portugal clearly above fixed broadband’s, intensifying the convergence problem and the regulatory solutions that its possible implementation will carry.
ICP-ANACOM's 1st International Conference, on convergence, carried out in 2007 in the scope of the EU's Portuguese Presidency, gave strong contributions to the definition of the paths that structure it, raising new issues concerning the regulatory framework, the least of which will surely be the definition of markets (or a market only, admitting a full convergence?).
The third point we would like to highlight relates to the search for efficiency in the regulatory activity and its connection with the clear increase of dispute cases.
Convergence and, mainly, the implementation of New Generation and Access Networks, which can be the greatest expression of that convergence, have shown that the search for competition in the electronic communications markets depends not only of an appropriate regulation, but even more from the guarantee that the established rules are fulfilled in good faith by all market agents, which has not always happened.
For this reason, behaviours that create artificial barriers to access, which seems easy to prevent on regulations, cannot be allowed, and the celerity in removing these obstacles will be the success measure for regulation, and particularly for the creation of a competitive and efficient environment. All delaying processes will thus be a clearly harmful element for the full development of electronic communications markets.
The Regulation Report could not end without a new and more supported reference to the spin-off that took place at the end of the year, less for the effects it had on regulation during 2007, but rather for the challenges that can already be pictured but that will only be fully visible in 2008. The truth is that if the separation becomes unquestionable, as the first strategies of both separate companies seem to show - with a growing and stiff competition between PT Group and PT Multimédia (now ZON Multimédia), the first one offering IPTV and the second providing fixed telephone - there is still some structural changes to be considered in some of the relevant markets studied by ICP-ANACOM that will impose new revaluations, which become very complex due to the need to untangle so many assets that were commonly shared and created throughout so many years.
This untangle is particularly urgent and relevant considering its framework in the development of New Generation and Access Networks, the greatest regulatory challenge for 2008, which has to be taken, with openness, innovation and humbleness.
