<Tenders, Govt contracts & EU funding for SMEs / >

The Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC), which recently launched its new website, opened two consultations with regard to the broadband common positions and 2013 work programme. BEREC has revised its broadband common positions, originally adopted in 2006 and 2007, to reflect both technological developments (the roll-out of Next-generation access (NGA) networks) and regulatory developments (the revisions to the European regulatory framework in 2009, and the Commission’s NGA Recommendation). The revised common positions were adopted for public consultation at BEREC’s 12th Plenary, and are consistent with BEREC’s consultation responses to the Commission’s upcoming draft recommendations on non-discrimination and costing methodologies for NGA. The consultation closes on 18 October 2012.

BEREC is also consulting on its work programme for 2013, which follows the themes outlined in its Medium-Term Strategy adopted in February 2012, namely infrastructure (boosting the roll-out of next generation networks), consumers (consumer empowerment and protection) and services (boosting the internal market). This consultation is running until 26 October 2012.

The “Report on Regulatory Accounting in Practice”, has been adopted recently by BEREC. This report reveals the continued convergence of approaches across Europe. Going forward, BEREC will focus on better understanding and explaining the reasons behind NRAs’ choices of particular costing methodologies. It will also draw upon the data presented and analysed in this Report to provide an opinion on the Commission’s draft recommendation on costing methodologies for NGA.