EU Wants Single Clearing System For Mobile Satellite Service Cos
BRUSSELS -(Dow Jones)- The European Commission Wednesday proposed a single pan-European system for granting permission to companies that want to offer mobile satellite services within the 27-nation European Union.
The system would make the Brussels-based executive and regulatory arm of the E.U. the blanket go-to agency for companies looking to offer these services, replacing the need for 27 disparate national authorization systems, the commission said.
"Today we have a problem in mobile satellite services," said commission spokesman Martin Selmayr, as any company that wants to offer such services has "to have an authorization and license in every of the 27" E.U. nations.
A single, coherent system for licensing and authorizing these operators would create "a one-stop shop mechanism," Selmayr added.
Currently, national governments are charged with licensing companies to operate such services, and generally use very different systems and criteria for doing so, the commission said. Though the commission in February set aside its two gigahertz radio spectrum band specifically for mobile satellite services, the spectrum has gone unused because it's too expensive for companies to offer the services unless they can do it throughout all of the E.U., Selmayr said. The commission would be the lead agency on the new authorization system, the commission said. It will first make an open call for applicants who want to provide mobile satellite services, then will review the companies. If there is enough spectrum to go around, the commission said, all viable applicants will be okayed. If spectrum is scarce, the commission - backed by national governments - will select players, based on such criteria as "pan-E.U. geographic coverage," "consumer and competitive benefits" and "public policy objectives."
Companies interested in applying include Inmarsat, Vodafone, SES Astra, Eutelsat, Telecom Italia, Belgacom and Mobistar, the commission said.
The scheme must first be approved by the European Parliament and by national governments, the commission said. It would likely be operational in 2009, according to Selmayr.
Mobile satellite services include any offerings that transmit data via a space-based satellite system sending signals to a mobile receiver on earth. Examples include high-speed Internet on a mobile handset, television broadcast on a mobile telephone or high-speed emergency alert systems, the commission said.
Wednesday's move is part of Brussels' wider push to break down national barriers and create a harmonized single market for goods and services within the E.U. The new system, the commission says, would bring mobile satellite services to European citizens as quickly as possible, and would boost the competitiveness of European satellite companies.
"This is very important for the space industry as such," Selmayr said, adding that the market for this industry and its related applications is worth some EUR70 billion globally and is growing at a rate of 7% per year. "It is very important for competitiveness to get this market functioning."
-By Anne Jolis, Dow Jones Newswires; +32 2 741 1488; anne.jolis@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
Posted to the site on 22nd August 2007
