In Short
The Situation: On December 18, 2018, the
European Union published its European Electronic Communication
Code ("Code").
The Result: The Code overhauls the current
legislative framework for telecommunications with the aim of
consolidating existing legislations into a single Act.
Looking Ahead: The Code must be implemented in
national legislation by December 21, 2020, although price caps for
intra-EU calls and texts will begin to apply on May 15, 2019.
The European Electronic Communication Code
broadens its scope to over-the-top players ("OTT") and
promotes the rollout of very high capacity networks (5G and fiber
networks). The European Parliament also introduced additional
measures to impose caps on retail tariffs for intra-EU voice calls
and texts, which ultimately were inserted in the Body of European
Regulators for Electronic Communications ("BEREC")
Regulation 2018/1971.
