News from EMERG Members:
NTRA Egypt informs that it is issuing a new regulatory framework for licenses to establish and lease the infrastructure for mobile towers. NTRA is available to discuss any detail about the new license with different stakeholders interested to explore this new license.
Please find here the official communication:
The EMERG Plenary assembly will be held via videoconference from Palestine on 23 June 2020, chaired by MTIT, EMERG Chair 2020. Due to COVD-19 emergency, it was not possible to organise a physical meeting as planned at the Contact network in Frankfurt.
According to the EMERG Charter the Plenary’s tasks are:
- Appointing the Chair 2021;
- Appointing the members of the Permanent Secretariat;
- Establishing Expert Working Groups and appointing their Chair or co-chairs.
- Approving the Work-plan;
- Approving the Annual Report and the Benchmark Report of the previous year and decide on their publication on the EMERG Website;
- Granting membership and/or observer status to candidates;
- Adopting and amend the EMERG Charter;
- Adopting and amend its own rules of procedure, as well as those of the Contact Network and the Permanent Secretariat;
- Discussing regulatory issues and proposals emerging from the benchmarking or working group activities with a view to approximation
A public version of the Agenda will be published in due course.
The Ministry of Telecom and IT of Palestine, as EMERG Chair 2020, in agreement with the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Jordan and EMERG Members, informs that the Plenary assembly, planned in Amman (Jordan) on 3 March 2020, has been postponed to a later date for safety reasons, due to the health emergency caused by COVID-19 (Coronavirus) in some EMERG countries.
In 2019, EMERG members decided to explore the possibility to start a project for the development of a regional approach toward international roaming regulation, giving the task to the competent Expert working group, chaired by MOC Israel. To this aim, a first report has been prepared in the context of the EMERG Work Plan 2019 and in accordance with the strategic objectives laid down during EMERG 2019 plenary, which was held in Sarajevo on 26 March 2019. It summarizes the work done by the EMERG IR-EWG and lays down recommendations on how affordable, accessible and reliable roaming services in EMERG region can be provided. The report aims to ensure continuity in workflow and to set the foundations for future discussions on regional roaming agreement among EMERG members.
One of the results of the work done by the IR-EWG members indicates that as concluded by other regional groups, there is a considerable need to regulate roaming services and to ensure their provision on an affordable, accessible and reliable basis. This inference relies on the fundamental acknowledgments that currently, exorbitant international roaming prices undermine consumer benefits and hinder the efforts of EMERG Non-EU members to promote the digital economy and society in their respective countries.
Background
The European Mediterranean Regulators Group (EMERG) was established on July 1st, 2008 in Malta, as an independent platform of National Regulatory Authorities for Electronic Communications Networks and Services.
EMERG is open to any National Regulatory Authority (NRA) concerned with the electronic communications sector that is member of or observer in the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) or party to the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership launched within the framework of the Barcelona Declaration of November 28, 1995 and/or to the ENP-South countries of the European Neighbourhood Policy.
Currently, EMERG is integrated by the NRAs of 23 countries: Algeria, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Morocco, State of Palestine, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey.
Approximation to the European regulatory framework in the electronic communications has been the primary goal of the EMERG since its establishment in 2008. To this aim, the European Union has supported its activities and sponsored them to enable the participation of the experts from the Southern-Mediterranean Countries, within the ideals and the principles of the Euro-Mediterranean cooperation set out in the Barcelona Declaration of November 28, 1995.
The EMERG Plenary 2019 decided to set up a specific expert working group, chaired by CRA Bosnia and Herzegovina, so to track all the progress made by the EMERG members, in particular South-Mediterranean countries, in this direction.
The purpose of this report is to critically examine and evaluate the progress regarding the electronic communications sector of EMERG member states, in particular the rapprochement of non-EU countries with the EU members. The report maps the progress achieved in the convergence of the telecommunications frameworks as well as comparison of trends and state of regulatory achievement between EU and non EU countries. The special focus is put on the level of approximation achieved within the period of the last three to four years. In the last several years, steps have been taken to approximate EU standards and regulations in certain areas. For the purpose of this report, EMERG conducted a small survey focusing on the most important projects and trends that the regulators have been facing over the past 5 years.
The Report is structured in the following way:
Chapter 1 Introduction;
Chapter 2 presents the development of the EMERG countries in terms of institutional aspects;
Chapter 3 focuses on regulatory developments and measures that have been undertaken by members to achieve rapprochement,
Chapter 4 shows how countries have developed in terms of market parameters; in that regard it is also important to show where discrepancies are persisting, and the reasons behind these differences. Chapter 5 summarizes the findings and evaluates the recommendations made during the EMERG workshops in recent years.
Background
The European Mediterranean Regulators Group (EMERG) was established on July 1st, 2008 in Malta, as an independent platform of National Regulatory Authorities for Electronic Communications Networks and Services.
EMERG is open to any National Regulatory Authority (NRA) concerned with the electronic communications sector that is member of or observer in the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) or party to the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership launched within the framework of the Barcelona Declaration of November 28, 1995 and/or to the ENP-South countries of the European Neighbourhood Policy.
Currently, EMERG is integrated by the NRAs of 23 countries: Algeria, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Morocco, State of Palestine, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey.
Since its founding in 2008 EMERG has been funded by the European Commission through NATP I-IV program. The last project, in combination with funding from the Commission, ran from 2016 to 2020, and over the last two years EMERG explored several options to ensure the long-term sustainability of the platform in case the Commission were to exclude further funding.
At Rome plenary meeting in 2017, EMERG started discussing on the future sustainability, investigating different options at stake, following a survey circulated on the benefits perceived by the Members over the years. The result showed that “best practice”, “cooperation” and “networking” were considered the most important.
In 2019, the EMERG plenary decided to give to the EMERG Sustainability working group, chaired by NTRA Egypt, as main task, to prepare a report summarising the various options, the associated conditions and their advantages and disadvantages for the EMERG future sustainability.
However, as main outcome of the Report, it is clear that EMERG needs the support of a third-party funding, preferably the European Union, considering the work done by the South-Mediterranean countries and their progress towards the approximation to the EU regulatory framework.
Background
The European Mediterranean Regulators Group (EMERG) was established on July 1st, 2008 in Malta, as an independent platform of National Regulatory Authorities for Electronic Communications Networks and Services.
EMERG is open to any National Regulatory Authority (NRA) concerned with the electronic communications sector that is member of or observer in the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) or party to the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership launched within the framework of the Barcelona Declaration of November 28, 1995 and/or to the ENP-South countries of the European Neighbourhood Policy.
Currently, EMERG is integrated by the NRAs of 23 countries: Algeria, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Morocco, State of Palestine, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey.
The EMERG/Contact network meeting is the preparatory meeting for the EMERG Activities for 2020.
According to the EMERG Charter, the Members have to discuss the following issues:
- Discuss the yearly Benchmarking Report, and approve the draft to be presented to the Plenary Assembly;
- Assess the implementation of the Work-plan and the recommendations and decisions adopted by the Plenary Assembly;
- Ensure and plan the follow-up of these recommendations and decisions;
- Discuss the tasks and rules of procedures of the Secretariat and propose modifications to the Plenary Assembly whenever necessary;
- Follow up on the development, enhancement, and efficient utilization of EMERG website;
- Study the issues of common interest likely to be the object of debates and discussions during the Plenary Assembly;
- Propose any document to be approved and/or published to the Plenary Assembly;
- Propose a draft agenda for the following Plenary Assembly.
EMERG Members considered the proposals for the work plan 2020 and collected volunteers for hosting the workshops and for chairing them as rapporteur.
Furthermore, the EMERG CN called for volunteers to serve as EMERG Chair in 2021. At the same time, EMERG CN opened the same call for Members of the Permanent Secretariat, considering that CRA (Bosnia and Herzegovina), as outgoing Chair, and MTIT (Palestine) as Chair 2020 are part of it.
2019 was a very fruitful year for EMERG and during the CN three reports, drafted by the competent expert working groups in cooperation with the consultants, namely:
-EMERG Report on International Roaming (International Roaming EWG chaired by MOC Israel)
-EMERG Report on Sustainability (Sustainability EWG chaired by NTRA Egypt)
-EMERG Report on Approximation to the EU Framework (Approximation EWG Chaired by CRA Bosnia and Herzegovina)
The new role of regulators in the era of the new ecosystem of telecommunications and the new challenges of telecom regulation
Rapid technological change that we have been witnessing over the years have significantly influenced the way we live, work and interrelate. Digital transformation brings new opportunities for citizens and industries, but also new challenges for the operators and regulators. Telecom industry is at the center of the technological revolution led by the use of the emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, new “over-the-top” operators, Robotics and Blockchain.
The role of NRAs is becoming complicated in increasingly complex Telco sector where the boundaries between industries are blurring. Communication services are becoming a core product of many non-Telco industries and thus the regulatory area of responsibility becomes unclear.
It is becoming more and more obvious that modern ICT services are forcing NRAs to co-operate with other national and international public Regulatory Authorities.
The aim of this workshop is to discuss the regulatory aspects related to the new telecom ecosystem that rise from innovative technologies such as IoT, OTT, AI. The main question is what will the future role of NRA imply in expending a pure regulatory task to digital industries? The Workshop should also provide an overview of structural and organizational requirements that stand in front of NRAs in order to meet new challenges and define necessary improvements in terms of human capital, new work processes and know-how.
Programme
The new role of regulators: Example IoT ecosystem”, Dr. Arnulf Heuermann, DETECON
OTT Multimedia Services, Vesna Gaspar, HAKOM Croatia
The governance of networks, Stefano Lucidi, WIK
RPA and Intelligent Automation Roadmap, the power of the future vision and the cognitive vision sensing for data pattern, Eman Roshdy, NTRA Egypt