Spain

[ES] New Telecommunications Bill

IRIS 2003-6:1/25

Alberto Pérez Gómez

Entidad publica empresarial RED.ES

In March 2003, the Spanish Government presented a new Bill on Telecommunications, which is expected to replace Act 11/1998 on Telecommunications. The main goal of this new Bill is to implement into Spanish Law the new EC Electronic Communications Framework, which was approved in April 2002 and should be incorporated into national law not later than 24 July 2003 (see IRIS 2002-3: 4).

The new legislation tries to ensure a coherent regulatory framework that will apply to all transmission infrastructures, irrespective of the types of services carried over them (the so-called "horizontal" approach). This Bill is not intended to regulate Information Society Services (as defined in the Spanish Act 34/2002, which implemented Directive 2000/31/EC), nor does it deal with audio-visual services as such, although some of its provisions clearly affect this market. For example, the Bill includes provisions which regulate conditional access services and must carry-rules, and it confirms the current powers of the Spanish regulator Comisión del Mercado de las Telecomunicaciones (Telecommunications Market Commission ­ CMT) as regards the safeguard of free competition in the audio-visual market.

The Bill is now being discussed in Parliament, and it is expected that it will be approved this summer.