Regulation

The EC today presented a wide-ranging plan which would significantly change the business of providing roaming services to customers. Under the terms proposed, customers would be able to sign-up for a cheaper roaming tariff, separate from their national service contract, while using the same number. Operators and MVNOs would also be given the right to use other operators’ networks in the EU at regulated wholesale prices, to encourage more operators to compete in the roaming market.

LightSquared raised US$265 million in additional financing, against a backdrop of concern about how the FCC will respond to claims that the company’s planned wholesale LTE/satellite network will interfere with GPS signals.

The US Federal Trade Commission has begun talking to developers to assess whether Twitter’s business practices harm competition, as part of a preliminary inquiry, Bloomberg reported. The agency is said to be responding to complaints that the company is making it harder for some software developers to design apps which use APIs to connect to the service, although it was also noted that as yet the investigation has not been made public.

The European Union said that from today mobile operators are “obliged to lower retail prices for roaming calls,” in line with regulations introduced in 2007 and amended in 2009.

The Financial Times said that Microsoft is set to lead a UK consortium trialling the use of “white space” spectrum to deliver mobile broadband services, with other participants including the BBC, BT, Nokia, Samsung and media company BSB.

UK regulator Ofcom has given the go-ahead for mobile operators to trade the rights to the spectrum they hold, in a measure it said is aimed at helping increase mobile network capacity and deliver faster and more reliable mobile services for consumers.

ARCEP, the French telecoms regulator, called for applications for its planned 800MHz and 2.6GHz spectrum auctions, with a deadline of 15 December 2011 for the latter, and 15 September 2011 for the former.