Telecommunications law

Connecting remotely – an evergreen

Are you in the sector or market of telecom operators and cable operators or the ‘telecom business market’, and looking for a lawyer who has a feel for the market?

• (a) In the retail market, legal contracts on Smartphones, GSM/devices/PDA, Internet tablet/tablet PCs, handset subscriptions, accessories are particularly involved.

It can also involve: after sales issues/fullfillment, cables/broadband, home entertainment, car connect, navigation but also insurance.

• (b) In the telecom business market, it mainly concerns contracts or non-performance of products/services in the field of IP Dect/full IP, hosted voice, (open source) PABX, VoIP, data networks, unified communications, video communication/conferencing , Machine 2 Machine, Mobile Solutions/HNW, Private GSM/VoWLAN Fibre optics/cable/ ADSL and the Telecom expence, MVNOs.
• (c) In the telecom operators and cable operators market, the emphases are on LTE/WiMAX, Content/Data/Apps, Network Infrastructure, Convergence Security Communication services, IPTV/New TV viewing, Measurement Datacentres/Storage, Managed Services/Cloud CRM/business intelligence and billing.

Telecoms, ICT and social media are merging

In the world of telecoms, boundaries are also blurring due to information technology and other technology. In the mid-1980s, the foundations for telecom liberalisation were laid in the EU. For example, on standardisation of technology (GSM), agreements on frequencies, the demonopolisation of state-owned companies, cost-oriented tariffs (interconnection etc.).

Socially, the impact of telecommunications has become a very decisive factor especially where speed and massiveness are concerned. We are already seeing a third generation of the telecommunications wave. From one-way mass communication (TV, radio) to mass and at the same time individual communication (email, mobile phone, SMS, tweets). And meanwhile, there is also a conversion to and through social media. In case of emergencies, NS and KLM have been tweeting for quite some time. Email has long since been overtaken among young people by ‘instant messaging’ where Msn live now competes with WhatsApp and forheem with Ping on PDAs. At the same time, we are seeing national and international waves of communication through Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn but also new marketing terms like ‘crowd sourcing’.

The hardware side is growing along where the classic GSM phone has been upgraded to a mini-laptop (PDAs / smartphones like iPhone, Samsung) but also by tablets from Apple, Android and Samsung. Apart from marketers, their political equivalents, the spin doctors, must also keep a keen eye on these media and techniques. It marks and facilitates revolutions without government intervention, provokes censorship (China, N Korea) and itself leads to deliberate disconnection from the internet (Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Syria 2011-2012). So since the market was opened to new entrants, there has been real telecom revolution with multiple angles. ICT developments such as SaaS and cloud computing connect to this and seem to run right through it.

Telecommunications law created competition, lower prices and numerous new services but also numerous new contracts. Advancing technology has nevertheless kept it complex, albeit now in different areas.

However you use your fibre, copper lines or the airwaves, every business is concerned with communications. If you are a telecom company, you will always weigh up how your business activities relate to the law and the policies of the regulator OPTA.

The telecommunications market requires keen navigation because of competition rules. Authority Consumer & Market ACM (formerly NMa/Opta) ensure competition, intervenes on prices and calculations and supervises. This is possible and necessary, but is it right in your case? Do dominant infrastructure providers give you access on reasonable terms? How to deal with the rules on frequencies ? Our specialist Bert Gravendeel was himself involved early on in the liberalisation of a telecoms company and in competition cases with other telecoms companies.