Spain

[ES] Bill on Telecommunications

IRIS 1997-10:1/19

Alberto Pérez Gómez

Entidad publica empresarial RED.ES

This June, the Spanish Government presented a new Bill on Telecommunications. The Bill is due to substitute the 1987 Ley de Ordenación de las Telecomunicaciones (LOT), in order to comply with the requirements of EC Telecommunications law. The Bill only deals with telecommunications (liberalisation and free competition in telecommunications market; interconnection of networks; numbering policy; telecommunications public service; privacy of data in telecommunications networks; sanctions; telecommunication authorities...). The Bill expressely establishes that radio and TV broadcasting are excluded (Art. 1), so they will be regulated by the existing rules, including some articles of the LOT, related especially with to the radio, that won't be abrogated by the new law. Some parties have argued that by excluding broadcasting, the telecommunications Bill doesn't take into account the convergence that is taking place between telecommunications, broadcasting and information services. The Government answered that it is urgent to pass this law, because the Government, in the negociation that took place with the Commission for the granting of an additional implementation period (until december 1998, instead of January 1998) for the implementation of the EU Telecommunication Directives, announced that the Bill will have been enacted by the beginning of next year, and regulating now also TV and radio in addition would make the debate much more complicated.