The European Commission launched a consultation on the treatment of Voice over VoIP services under the EU regulatory framework. Based on the conclusions reached in this consultation, the European Commission expressed its intention to promote the development of VoIP services rather than develop detailed guidelines for VoIP. Moreover, VoIP providers often face difficulties to provide guaranteed access to emergency services due to technical limitations. However, rather than impose strict obligations, the European Commission has encouraged market players to collaborate on possible solutions for the provision of emergency access services.
The main objective of the European Commission is to harmonize the legislation in EU countries through directives, regulations and decisions of the European Parliament and of the Council and Commission. In June 2004, a consultation on the treatment of VoIP services under the Regulatory Framework was launched by the European Commission. The purpose of the consultation was to clarify the application of the Directives to VoIP services. In February 2005, the European Commission opted to refrain from developing detailed guidelines for VoIP services. Instead, the Commission merely expressed its intention to promote the development of VoIP services. Further, in order to allow innovative services and market structures to emerge, the Commission urged National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) to take a light touch approach to regulation of VoIP. To this end, the European Regulator Group (ERG) has issued guidelines in some areas of VoIP, but NRAs have been free to develop their own approaches to the treatment of VoIP.
VoIP providers often face difficulties in providing guaranteed access to emergency services due to the technical limitations involved in processing such services. One main difficulty is the provision of a means to identify caller location if VoIP services are provided nomadically.
What is the role of European Commission in regulating VoIP?
In order to encourage competition between Internet carriers of telephone traffic and traditional telephone companies, the European Commission favors an EU-wide light touch approach to VoIP. The goal of the European Commission is to ensure, jointly with the national regulators, that throughout the EU, the roll-out of VoIP services will not be hindered by regulatory hurdles. The rationale for this approach is that if new technologies are allowed to flourish and if providers are permitted to deliver better services at a lower cost, the European Commission believes that this result would be in the best interest of Europe’s businesses and citizens.
What differences exist in the Member States’ approaches to VoIP?
The national authorities of each member state are required to apply the provisions of the EU regulatory framework for electronic communications under the overall supervision of the European Commission. If EU directives are accurately transposed into national law by a Member State and if a Member State follows the interpretative guidance given by the European Commission, serious discrepancies between the regulatory approaches followed in Member States and the EU directives should not occur. Notwithstanding, and although the primary goal of the Commission is to harmonize Member State law with the EU directives, Member States are permitted to make some differences due to national needs.
Despite the overall goal of harmonization, NRAs have had a tendency to enact divergent regulatory approaches toward VoIP. Few members have taken a more interventionist approach to these services and most NRAs want to send the right signals to the market in order to encourage the compliance of these new services with national norms.
What are the challenges regarding access to emergency services via VoIP? It is not always possible for VoIP providers to offer sufficient functionalities for emergency access as traditional public service providers because of the current state of technological and market developments in VoIP. Primarily, difficulties arise if the caller is “nomadic” in which case, it is difficult thief not impossible for the emergency service provider to identify the location of the VoIP caller.
Instead of imposing strict obligations on VoIP, the European Commission encourages market players to collaborate on possible solutions. In most cases, access to emergency services generally presents no problem when VoIP is used from a fixed location, just like a traditional telephone service.
