Comms Bill Published

dahamsta

The Communications (Regulation) Bill 2002 has been published, and is available as a PDF from this page:

http://www.gov.ie/bills28/bills/2002/1102/default.htm

adam

Lemming

HMMM .. a bit of tortureous reading (I hate legal documents), but I like some of what I see in here.

The section (Part 2, #35) on the co-operation between the regulatory body and competition authority looks interesting. Either party can defer to the other where needs be. The regulator should then be able to invoke competition laws on the likes of Eircom's wholesale aDSL pricing??

It also allows the issuing of "Compliance Orders" Part 3 sect.45 which operators would have to follow or face legal proceedings

Although its a shame that the area of imposing fines (part 3 sect.46) that they elected not to keep the 10% of turnover. I feel that would have made any company flinch at the prospect. Unfortunately, it appears that there are two fines now. One for summary conviction of <= 3000 Euro, and one for conviction of indictment of <= 1 million Euro

The likes of Eircom and Esat spend as much a day on advertising and whatnot imo

The area of infrastructure sharing looks like its going someway to redressing the status quo (part 5 sect.58). It allows the Regulatory body to act without an OLO making a complaint to specify deadlines and such, and if these are not met, to take whatever steps are necessary to rectify the situation

Fergus

It looks like the summary conviction fine has been basically adjusted for inflation. .. from €2000 approx to €3000

The fine on conviction on indictment is changed from €50k to €1m .. in the case of Eircom of course, the legal cost of getting such an indictment against them would most likely exceed the €1m anyway, so not much change of that.

Interesting provisions on how telcos can negotiate to share infrastructure with other telcos. Can't imagine negotiations between telcos causing any problems

dahamsta

HMMM .. a bit of tortureous reading (I hate legal documents)

Ditto. They mean little to me, so I'll be relying on others to help me sift through it.

The section (Part 2, #35) on the co-operation between the regulatory body and competition authority looks interesting. Either party can defer to the other where needs be.

I'm wondering if this is or isn't already the case? Surely the Competition Authority should already have some authority over big business like Eircom?

The regulator should then be able to invoke competition laws on the likes of Eircom's wholesale aDSL pricing??

But will they? And critically, will the CA have the power to be able to deal with it?

It also allows the issuing of "Compliance Orders" Part 3 sect.45 which operators would have to follow or face legal proceedings

This seems to relate to enforcement of Decision Notices, it doesn't appear to address the real problem of an unwillingness by the ODTR to mandate. The Regulator states that it is not within her power to mandate, however other Regulators using the same European legislation /have/ mandated services. If the Regulator is unwilling to do so, the Compliance Orders will not even come into play.

Although its a shame that the area of imposing fines (part 3 sect.46) that they elected not to keep the 10% of turnover. I feel that would have made any company flinch at the prospect. Unfortunately, it appears that there are two fines now. One for summary conviction of <= 3000 Euro, and one for conviction of indictment of <= 1 million Euro The likes of Eircom and Esat spend as much a day on advertising and whatnot imo

I've ranted enough on this for the moment methinks. I reserve the right to rant some more though...

The area of infrastructure sharing looks like its going someway to redressing the status quo (part 5 sect.58). It allows the Regulatory body to act without an OLO making a complaint to specify deadlines and such, and if these are not met, to take whatever steps are necessary to rectify the situation

Again though, there has to be a willingness on the part of the new commission to /actually act/. The current ODTR seems disinclined to test the waters. It can't be denied that market interference by Government can often do more harm than good, but I would think the Regulator's market could be considered an exception to the rule, n'est ce pas?

adam

Fergus

The section (Part 2, #35) on the co-operation between the regulatory body and competition authority looks interesting. Either party can defer to the other where needs be.

I'm wondering if this is or isn't already the case? Surely the Competition Authority should already have some authority over big business like Eircom?

This seems to be a new development.. it's not in the current legislation as far as I can see. I'd be interested to know what the intentions are behind this provision.

Also, what exactly is the practical need to replace one regulator with a commission? Seeing as how nearly half the Bill is taken up with the establishment of it and transfer of powers...

vinnyfitz

I think this Bill should, primarily, be welcomed by IOFFL and we should ask all Parties to back it publicly - see below.

The penalties are big enough to make Directors / shareholders sit up and pay attention and therfore to incentivise Management to avoid them.

The provisions to facilitate collaboration between the Regulator/Commission and the Competition Authority are good. The CA has significant powers - which are being boosted by other legislation currently being rushed through the Dail. What is essential is that the CA and Regulator don't compete with each other as to who is responsible for deciding on issues and this sort of wording should ensure that.

All the technical stuff about shifting from one regulator to a commission goes back to O'Rourkes concerns years ago about whether the single regulator was sufficiently accountable. Whether this was a real problem is open to debate but one could certaily argue that there is enough work for a Commission at this stage.

Anyway the real issue is whether there is a hope in hell of this law getting passed before the Dail adjourns. It is very unlikley that it will, in which case the risk is that it will be "back to the drawing board" after the election. We should be urging all parties to support this Bill and committing to reintroduce it immediatley after the election if it does not get passed by Easter.

ando

Originally posted by dahamsta
The Communications (Regulation) Bill 2002 has been published

forgive me, but does this mean its in operation now ?

mdf

No. It still needs to be debated/passed by the Oireachtas in the seven(?) days remaining