Berlin / Brussels, 12 September 2018. On the occasion of the annual German Gigabit symposium, ecta supports leading German associations in sending a strong message to politicians and the administration to create the right conditions for advancing Gigabit connectivity and to highlight the need for a strong competitive underpinning.

Brussels, 26 July 2018.  In a judgment delivered yesterday, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) rejects on all counts Orange's appeal to overturn the General Court's confirmation of abuses committed by it Polish subsidiary, or to reduce the fine imposed. ecta, having intervened at both stages of the proceedings, welcomes this judgment, notably for rejecting Orange`s attempt to have its investments recognised as mitigating circumstances in fine-setting.
Case reference: C-123/16 P Orange Polska v Commission, judgment of 25.7.2018, ECLI:EU:C:2018:590.

Gothenburg, 19 June 2018 – The European Automotive and Telecom Alliance (EATA) supports the push by EU member states to address challenges to getting connected and automated vehicles on Europe’s roads in a far-reaching, coordinated manner.

Ministers from the 28 EU member states agreed today on a range of important actions to facilitate a timely deployment of connected and automated vehicles, during the third high-level meeting on Connected and Automated Driving (CAD). The European Automotive and Telecom Alliance, EATA, took part into the discussions and provided ministers with an industry perspective.

Brussels, 06.06.2018: Today ECTA celebrates its 20^th anniversary of promoting competition for the greater good of society.

ECTA recalls that effective competition is the key of current and future success of the Gigabit Society and the European Union has achieved a lot in the past 20 years through liberalisation. Pro-competitive access regulation has been and remains instrumental.

Brussels, 31 May 2018: Ahead of the 8 June TTE Council, we urge Member States to remain cautious in their examination of the draft ePrivacy Regulation (ePR). Limited progress has been achieved since the beginning of Council discussions early last year and many questions remain open. More time is needed to assess the ePR’s scope of application, its overlaps with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and its impact on all sectors of the economy.

Brussels, 14 May 2018

Dear negotiator,

The end of competition in EU electronic communications will cripple the Connected Digital Single Market

After more than 19 months of interinstitutional exchange, ECTA is today writing to you to share its concern that the EU's vision for a Connected Digital Single Market risks being stopped dead in its tracks before it can effectively take off.

The reason: connectivity, the key ingredient powering all aspects of the Digital Single Market, is about to lose its competitive foundation in the negotiations on a proposed European Electronic Communications Code – the negotiations in which you participate.

Brussels, 14.05.2018: ECTA today addresses an open letter to the co-legislators and to the European Commission to warn that closing the negotiations on the draft European Electronic Communications Code ('the Code') may turn an apparent legislative victory into a very real and lasting policy defeat, if negotiators settle for trading off competition against investment, as currently proposed.

Brussels, 20 April 2018: Transatel, the leading European Mobile Virtual Network Enabler and Aggregator with strong expertise in Machine-to-Machine connectivity and in the Internet of Things joins ECTA as a Full member.

Jacques Bonifay, Transatel CEO: “In the past few years, Transatel has known an important deployment of its activities, with a variety of subjects ranging from enabling MVNOs to enabling the Internet of Things, along with some ambitious projects in global machine-to-machine. The scope has also greatly evolved: from specifically European, we’re now launching projects in Japan, the US, and the whole of Europe. Such an important change of scale indicated the need to become a member of ECTA.”

Brussels, 12 March 2018: Last week, the European Commission issued a draft compromise proposal text on article 74 of the European Electronic Communications Code, which is being currently negotiated between the Council and the European Parliament.

This article aims at setting down the rules for co-investment schemes between the telecom operator having significant market power (SMP) and other operators.

On several occasions, ECTA has previously flagged the potentially anti-competitive effects of this article.

The text now proposed by the European Commission in response to the Council’s inappropriate deregulation proposal exceeds our worst nightmares: Not only does the draft extend deregulation well beyond co-investment by including simple commercial offers, but its aim seems to be to establish an overall passport for regulatory holidays that will irrecoverably damage competition and hence investment.

With the proposal for a European Electronic Communications Code, the European Commission has expressed its ambition to rewrite EU regulation to enable the arrival of the Gigabit Society in Europe. This ambition covers both fixed and mobile networks and ties in with a strategic action plan for advancing 5G, the next generation of wireless technology in the EU.