Government approves Draft General Law on Telecommunications

The Council of Ministers today approved the Draft General Law on Telecommunications, which transposes Directive 2018/1972 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the European Code of Electronic Communications.

The text goes beyond the field of electronic communications networks and services to regulate, among others, aspects relating to telecommunications equipment, common telecommunications infrastructures in buildings and all uses of the public radio domain.

Spain has one of the most extensive and resilient telecommunications networks in Europe. Some of the measures of the Spanish legal system, which have encouraged investment and this deployment, have served as inspiration for the drafting of the European Code of Electronic Communications. Measures such as, for example, the installation of common telecommunications infrastructures inside buildings (ICT); the coordination of civil works to enable the deployment of very high capacity networks; or the reduction of administrative procedures for the installation of mobile telephone base stations have been introduced.

The bill now incorporates new measures to further incentivize and boost investments in the telecommunications sector, which will help achieve the goal of adequate high-speed connectivity to 100% of the population by 2025.

The text introduces improvements to facilitate the deployment of very high-capacity networks, as well as more flexible regulation to reach co-investment agreements between operators and a boost to the sharing of passive infrastructures. It also incorporates the establishment of voluntary access commitments, the possibility of deploying small cells – so necessary for 5G – with far fewer administrative burdens and promoting the secondary market for radio spectrum.

In addition, the measures of the recently adopted EU Connectivity Toolbox have been incorporated into the bill. This will promote coordination between administrations, establishing a single point for the information and processing of permits for the deployment of networks, which will speed up its implementation.

In addition, the Plan for Digital Connectivity and Infrastructures and the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan They aim to promote Spain to become the hub of digital interconnection in southern Europe.

For an effective monitoring of this market, the draft law establishes, for the first time, a communication regime for the installation or operation of submarine cables whose hooking, access or interconnection to electronic communications networks occurs in Spanish territory.

Likewise, a communication regime for Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) is established and information from Data Processing Centers (CPDs) may be collected.

In line with the EU Directive, the draft law establishes a classification of electronic communications service providers that is more appropriate to the reality of the market. Thus, interpersonal communications services independent of the numbering are regulated. These services assume obligations such as the communication prior to the Registry of operators, for statistical and census purposes. They should also ensure the integrity and security of their services and increase transparency towards users about the conditions under which they provide their services.

The bill strengthens the rights of Spanish users, which are harmonized with the European Union as a whole. Among other measures, the transparency of contracts is improved, which must include the detailed conditions in a summary prior to contracting. Its maximum duration is limited to 24 months to allow the user, after that period, to extend the contract or change the operator without penalty. For the first time, service package contracts are regulated, of particular importance, since they represent the vast majority of the subscriptions of households in Spain.

With this new regulation, the user will see that their telecommunications contract, although it includes other services such as television, is treated uniformly without applying different sectoral regulations.

In the field of portability, new rights of users are introduced, such as the ability to unlock the mobile card to facilitate the change of operator; keep the prepaid balance; keep the number one month after the termination of the contract; and the right to free forwarding of emails or access to them once the contract is terminated.

The rights of users with sensory diversity are also reinforced, something especially important to eliminate digital gaps. The bill introduces the accessibility requirement in the information relating to