New EU package approved

November 25, 2017

The new EU Telecoms Package has finally been approved by the European Parliament.

The package, which has been two years in the making, promises to increase consumer rights by making it quicker to change telephone operators, and ensuring that clear information is given about contracts, including any restrictions on connection speed.

Service providers will also be prevented from blocking certain services, and will have to inform customers of data breaches.

They will also not be able to disconnect customers believed to have been involved in illegal filesharing, until a fair and impartial procedure has been carried out.

The new regulations are also designed to create a more competitive telecoms market, through the creation of a new body that will bring together national regulators.

The rules aim to speed up the roll out of broadband to areas where it isn’t currently available by managing the allocation of radio spectrum.

This should make it possible to provide wireless broadband is places where building new broadband infrastructure would be too expensive.

A legal framework will be put in place to encourage the development of next generation access (NGA) networks based on optical fibre and wireless technologies.

The package will become law next month and member states have until May 24 2011 to include the legislation in their own rules.