A new body should be created in order to oversee the telecommunications industry across Europe, a committee has said.
A new Europe-wide telecoms regulator should be introduced in order to boost competition in the landline and mobile sector, it has been suggested.
The recommendation has been made by MEPs on the European Parliament's industry committee. In a statement, they said that the new watchdog should be used to co-ordinate the sell-off of radio spectrum freed up by the digital TV switchover that will take place in member states over the years to come. A host of telecoms and other technology firms are anticipated to bid for this spectrum.
In Britain, all of the old analogue TV signals are scheduled to be switched off by 2012 - with other European states such as France and Germany working off a similar schedule. This means that a significant portion of "air space" will need to be sold off - and the MEPs say that a new regulator might need to be established to synchronise the sale across all 27 member states.
However, the recommendations from the committee also represent a weakening of the European Commission's current plans for telecoms regulation. This is because the MEPs' statement counsels against the new watchdog being able to override national bodies such as the UK's Ofcom in the allocation of new spectrum, a reform which has been particularly pushed for by telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding.
Industry website The Register commented: "[Her] plans to revolutionise telecommunications with pan-European spectrum allocations and a new regulator have been reduced to a new talking shop."
