Spectrum survey pushes Commission harmonisation agenda

The debate on the UHF band continues and in a recent PolicyTracker interview, we saw Pascal Lamy, author of the 2014 Lamy Report public consultation on the future of the UHF band, predict the return of plus-or-minus two years for member states who need extra time to finalise their relocation plans. A day later we received a leak of a proposal from the Netherlands Presidency to the Council of Permanent Representatives (Coreper) which shows that the leeway is back on the table. 

Of course, as sources from a range of sectors have repeatedly told PolicyTracker, the Commission has its own agenda for a Digital Single Market and pushing spectrum harmonisation has always been a long-term goal. 

So a week ago when we started sifting through the responses to the Commission’s survey (the results of which we published last week) the telecommunications regulatory framework we weren’t too surprised by an apparent agenda in the questions. More than a third of the those relating to spectrum were concerned with giving the EU more central powers over harmonisation, one even seemed to float the idea of giving the Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG) an enforcement role.

We asked around to see if people thought there was not a little bias in the Commission’s homespun survey. One mobile chief laughed down the line “er, of course its biased,” she said. Our questions elicited less mirth from a Commission spokesperson. They told us that “the observed lack of [spectrum policy] coordination was not presented with either negative or positive connotation”. So apparently the Commission is keeping an open mind on spectrum harmonisation.

The Commission has laudable aims and a tough job on its hands and often seems to feel forced into actions that make it look a bit pushy, like suing the Council over WRC-15. An independent piece of research might have given any conclusions it hopes to use more credibility.