Contribution by Transatel to the BEREC public consultation

Direction juridique et réglementaire
Legal & Regulatory Department
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BEREC
[email protected]
Paris La Défense, 2012 August 10th
SUBJECT: BEREC GUIDELINES ON THE APPLICATION OF ARTICLE 3 OF THE
ROAMING REGULATION – WHOLESALE ROAMING ACCESS – A
CONSULTATION
TRANSATEL COMMENTS
Siège social France
TRANSATEL, SA à Directoire
et Conseil de Surveillance, au
capital de 1 535 439,57 €
Tour Les Saisons, 4, place
des Saisons, CS 30001
92036 PARIS LA DEFENSE
CEDEX
N° Société : 432 786 432
(RCS NANTERRE)
N° TVA : FR 49 432 786 432
Succursale Belgique
TRANSATEL, Société de
Droit Français
Filiale UK
TRANSATEL UK Limited,
Private Limited Company
Succursale Pays-Bas
TRANSATEL.NL
Succursale Luxembourg
TRANSATEL LUX
Rue Marie Depage, 3 boite 4
1180 BRUXELLES
5/7, Cranwood Street
LONDON EC1V9EE
Wibautstraat, 129
1091 GL AMSTERDAM
28, rue de Bettembourg
L-5810 HESPERANGE
N° Société : 0 476 709 468
N° Société : 04086268
N° Société : 34200 147 0000
N° Société : B114 951
N° TVA : BE 476 709 468
N° TVA : UK 788 004 414
N° TVA : NL 8127 37 957 B01
N° TVA : LU 20 99 36 74
Summary / Transatel presentation:
Transatel would like to thank the BEREC for this consultation which will hopefully help to bring more
competition into the European roaming market and help to develop the European Full MVNOs.
Transatel participated in the hearing held by BEREC on 19 July 2012.
Transatel is one of the first pan European MVNO having developed since 2001 an “alternative to
roaming” mobile offer (based on a multi IMSI architecture and on several national access agreements
with MNOs), for the cross border population and the roamers within the European Union (EU). The
development of this offer has been limited in some European countries because the main European
Mobile Network Operators (MNO) on the EU roaming market have always refused to sign a national
access agreement (MVNO agreement) with Transatel, and so to encourage the competition into this
market. The Transatel offer is commercialised under the Transatel Mobile brand (www.transatelmobile.com) in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Nederland and Switzerland. It must be pointed out that
the Transatel service can resolve roaming high rates outside of EU (ex.: Switzerland).
Transatel has developed a lot of other activities and is connected to eight (8) different European
mobile networks as a:
- MVNO
- MVNE (MVNO Enabler) providing turnkey solutions for MNOs or MVNOs
- M2M provider for MNOs/MVNOs/end users
Transatel is now implementing a Full MVNO architecture to support all those kind of activities, and by
the way is looking for new collaborators/partners for its headquarter based in Paris, France.
Transatel thinks that the last EU regulation on roaming may undermine its current multi IMSI business,
but may also represent some new business opportunities within the EU, and help Transatel to
leverage on its new Full MVNO architecture.
The key elements developed by Transatel into this consultation are the following:
-
-
-
Transatel welcomes the right for Full MVNOs to access to direct international roaming
agreements with visited MNOs. This will for sure contribute to increase the competition into
the roaming market
Transatel thinks it could be reasonable, and good in terms of a better competition into the
European roaming market, to create (into the direct access right) a “sub-right” for the Full
MVNOs to get local IMSI from the visited MNO in order for such Full MVNO to offer to its
customers a multi IMSI service, so that when such customers are going abroad they can make
local calls. This will contribute to give better prices to the European roamers, and so will
increase the competition on that market thanks to an innovative offer.
Transatel thinks that the resale roaming access is missing one of the main objectives of the
regulation, because it is a “reselling” solution which is not adapted to a “Full MVNO” solution.
Such resale access does not help the Full MVNOs to leverage on their infrastructure in order
to propose innovative solutions to the European consumers
Siège social France
TRANSATEL, SA à Directoire
et Conseil de Surveillance, au
capital de 1 535 439,57 €
Tour Les Saisons, 4, place
des Saisons, CS 30001
92036 PARIS LA DEFENSE
CEDEX
N° Société : 432 786 432
(RCS NANTERRE)
N° TVA : FR 49 432 786 432
Succursale Belgique
TRANSATEL, Société de
Droit Français
Filiale UK
TRANSATEL UK Limited,
Private Limited Company
Succursale Pays-Bas
TRANSATEL.NL
Succursale Luxembourg
TRANSATEL LUX
Rue Marie Depage, 3 boite 4
1180 BRUXELLES
5/7, Cranwood Street
LONDON EC1V9EE
Wibautstraat, 129
1091 GL AMSTERDAM
28, rue de Bettembourg
L-5810 HESPERANGE
N° Société : 0 476 709 468
N° Société : 04086268
N° Société : 34200 147 0000
N° Société : B114 951
N° TVA : BE 476 709 468
N° TVA : UK 788 004 414
N° TVA : NL 8127 37 957 B01
N° TVA : LU 20 99 36 74
Provision of service
Transatel answers to question (Q) 1
Yes, Transatel agrees with the timing of provision of the service.
Requirement to supply services; Basis of pricing
Transatel answers to Q2
Yes, Transatel agrees with BEREC’s approach to mandatory and optional resale access services and
to its approach to pricing.
Identity of access seekers
Transatel answers to Q3
We think that the BEREC guidelines should precise that the MVNE must also have a wholesale
roaming access right (provided they have a full MVNO infrastructure with a mobile network code etc.).
This position could help the MVNE to bring more competition into the European roaming market for the
interest of the European customers.
Refusal of requests
Transatel answers to Q4
We should distinguish here the direct access and the resale access.
Direct access:
The direct access right is very good as a principle because it will facilitate the negotiation of the
international wholesale roaming agreement by the Full MVNOs with the visited MNO. However, some
areas of the regulation need to be detailed into the BEREC guidelines.
The Full MVNOs do not have the right to adhere to the GSMA and so do not have access to the
resources of this association in order to negotiate the international roaming agreement with the visited
MNOs. As a consequence, the roaming III regulation and the BEREC guidelines must be more specific
for the Full MVNOs and helps to enforce the Full MVNOs right to get such an agreement with the
visited MNOs.
For example:
- When the term "reasonable" is used into the regulation, the definition of it must be more specific.
- The BEREC and/or the NRAs should monitor all the requests made by the Full MVNOs to a visited
MNO so that the MNOs do not have the tendency to block or delay the process of opening the direct
access.
- Any player that has a Full MVNO infrastructure and all authorisations into a European home country
(Mobile Network Code etc.) must get a direct access automatically.
- The obligations of the visited MNO in case of a direct access agreement should be the same than
those detailed into the appendix 1 of the BEREC consultation regarding the decoupling methods (i.e.
provisioning, post-paid and pre-paid billing, support etc.).
Resale access:
We suggest to specify into the BEREC guidelines that this access to the domestic MNO in order to
resale its roaming service is limited to the existing Full MVNOs already offering national, international
and roaming services. If not (if the Full MVNO does not already provide national services), it is some
kind of decoupling and it is subject to article 4 and 5 of the roaming III regulation.
Siège social France
TRANSATEL, SA à Directoire
et Conseil de Surveillance, au
capital de 1 535 439,57 €
Tour Les Saisons, 4, place
des Saisons, CS 30001
92036 PARIS LA DEFENSE
CEDEX
N° Société : 432 786 432
(RCS NANTERRE)
N° TVA : FR 49 432 786 432
Succursale Belgique
TRANSATEL, Société de
Droit Français
Filiale UK
TRANSATEL UK Limited,
Private Limited Company
Succursale Pays-Bas
TRANSATEL.NL
Succursale Luxembourg
TRANSATEL LUX
Rue Marie Depage, 3 boite 4
1180 BRUXELLES
5/7, Cranwood Street
LONDON EC1V9EE
Wibautstraat, 129
1091 GL AMSTERDAM
28, rue de Bettembourg
L-5810 HESPERANGE
N° Société : 0 476 709 468
N° Société : 04086268
N° Société : 34200 147 0000
N° Société : B114 951
N° TVA : BE 476 709 468
N° TVA : UK 788 004 414
N° TVA : NL 8127 37 957 B01
N° TVA : LU 20 99 36 74
Resale access services provided to undertakings whose retail services are otherwise hosted on other
networks
Q5
We think it should be detailed into the BEREC guidelines that the access seeker must be a European
company, or a non-European company provided the country of such non-European company
authorizes reciprocally a similar access rights for European companies. In addition to that, the access
seekers should have its operations and employees located in Europe, in order to avoid that nonEuropean players benefit from the wholesale roaming access right, for non-European visitors coming
into Europe and using a non-European IMSI, when the European visitors have not a reciprocal rights
when they travel abroad. Indeed, it should be pointed out that the European Full MVNOs and MNOs
will not benefit from an equivalent right in the non-European countries (for example, into China, US,
Russia etc...) in order to access to the international roaming at better rates for their end users visiting
those countries.
Resale of unregulated roaming services
Transatel answers to Q6
Yes, Transatel agrees with BEREC’s views on resale access to unregulated services.
Fair and reasonable charges
Transatel answers to Q7, Q8, Q9
Yes, Transatel agrees with BEREC.
Service level agreements and guarantee
Transatel answers to Q10
We think that the quality of service must include some basic indicators such as daily CDR, access to
provisioning interface.
Transatel has no other comments on this.
Interoperability, interfaces and protocols
Transatel answers to Q11
We would like to point out the fact that:
- First, it is important to have common interoperability, interfaces and protocols into the different
European countries. Actually, we are supposed to develop our activities on the roaming
market into several European countries in the same time. So if we need to implement different
type of infrastructure in each country, this will represent a costly investment for us, and then
this will limit our activities and the competition on that market.
- Finally, the Full MVNO architecture must be encouraged because the Full MVNOs have their
own infrastructure which will considerably facilitate/simplify the interconnection between the
MNOs and the access seekers.
Siège social France
TRANSATEL, SA à Directoire
et Conseil de Surveillance, au
capital de 1 535 439,57 €
Tour Les Saisons, 4, place
des Saisons, CS 30001
92036 PARIS LA DEFENSE
CEDEX
N° Société : 432 786 432
(RCS NANTERRE)
N° TVA : FR 49 432 786 432
Succursale Belgique
TRANSATEL, Société de
Droit Français
Filiale UK
TRANSATEL UK Limited,
Private Limited Company
Succursale Pays-Bas
TRANSATEL.NL
Succursale Luxembourg
TRANSATEL LUX
Rue Marie Depage, 3 boite 4
1180 BRUXELLES
5/7, Cranwood Street
LONDON EC1V9EE
Wibautstraat, 129
1091 GL AMSTERDAM
28, rue de Bettembourg
L-5810 HESPERANGE
N° Société : 0 476 709 468
N° Société : 04086268
N° Société : 34200 147 0000
N° Société : B114 951
N° TVA : BE 476 709 468
N° TVA : UK 788 004 414
N° TVA : NL 8127 37 957 B01
N° TVA : LU 20 99 36 74
Fraud prevention
Transatel answers to Q12
We think that the MNOs and the access seekers must have a strong obligation to cooperate on that
subject. In case of fraud with regard to value added services, it must be clear that no payments can be
done by the MNO or the access seeker to the value added services provider.
Restrictions on conduct of business
Transatel answers to Q13, Q14
We do not see the problem of the permanent roaming. This will clearly give more opportunity to
develop the competition within Europe. Unfair competition will be for example Chinese or US
companies creating a subsidiary in Europe to offer local roaming rates to Chinese or US visiting
Europe, when there is no reciprocity for European players.
Unreasonable barriers to entry
Transatel answers to Q15
We agree with the BEREC position and the need to avoid any unreasonable barriers to entry.
Transatel has no additional comments.
Other issues
Transatel answers to Q16, Q17,
Transatel would like to include two new guidelines:
Multi IMSI based on direct access
We would suggest the BEREC to force into the guidelines an access right (for the Full MVNO) which
allows them to receive an IMSI range from another country in order to implement them into its own
HLR, provided this is dedicated to a roaming offer.
Let us take an example. The French people leaving in France and working every day in Luxembourg
could use a Luxembourg IMSI as a kind of LBO only when this people roam in Luxembourg. It is a
French resident having a contract with a French company according to the French regulation, and this
resident uses a French IMSI for France and a Luxembourg ISMI for Luxembourg.
Transatel thinks that such kind of access (base on the multi IMSI architecture) is not a national
roaming agreement (and so outside of the scope of the roaming regulation) but a particular case of
direct access in order to provide a roaming service to the European customer.
Consequently, as long as such access is used exclusively for roamers from another Member State,
BEREC should specify into the guidelines that such type of direct access is reasonable and must be
encouraged according to the roaming regulation. This will bring a lot of competition into the European
market for sure.
Siège social France
TRANSATEL, SA à Directoire
et Conseil de Surveillance, au
capital de 1 535 439,57 €
Tour Les Saisons, 4, place
des Saisons, CS 30001
92036 PARIS LA DEFENSE
CEDEX
N° Société : 432 786 432
(RCS NANTERRE)
N° TVA : FR 49 432 786 432
Succursale Belgique
TRANSATEL, Société de
Droit Français
Filiale UK
TRANSATEL UK Limited,
Private Limited Company
Succursale Pays-Bas
TRANSATEL.NL
Succursale Luxembourg
TRANSATEL LUX
Rue Marie Depage, 3 boite 4
1180 BRUXELLES
5/7, Cranwood Street
LONDON EC1V9EE
Wibautstraat, 129
1091 GL AMSTERDAM
28, rue de Bettembourg
L-5810 HESPERANGE
N° Société : 0 476 709 468
N° Société : 04086268
N° Société : 34200 147 0000
N° Société : B114 951
N° TVA : BE 476 709 468
N° TVA : UK 788 004 414
N° TVA : NL 8127 37 957 B01
N° TVA : LU 20 99 36 74
Handset settings
It should be also specified into the BEREC guidelines that the MNO must not prevent the Full MVNOs
and the end users to control themselves the settings of their handsets, in order to warrant an effective
access to the data while roaming. As an example, the APN settings should be manually changeable
on the Iphone which it not the case on all MNO today.
/// End of document
Siège social France
TRANSATEL, SA à Directoire
et Conseil de Surveillance, au
capital de 1 535 439,57 €
Tour Les Saisons, 4, place
des Saisons, CS 30001
92036 PARIS LA DEFENSE
CEDEX
N° Société : 432 786 432
(RCS NANTERRE)
N° TVA : FR 49 432 786 432
Succursale Belgique
TRANSATEL, Société de
Droit Français
Filiale UK
TRANSATEL UK Limited,
Private Limited Company
Succursale Pays-Bas
TRANSATEL.NL
Succursale Luxembourg
TRANSATEL LUX
Rue Marie Depage, 3 boite 4
1180 BRUXELLES
5/7, Cranwood Street
LONDON EC1V9EE
Wibautstraat, 129
1091 GL AMSTERDAM
28, rue de Bettembourg
L-5810 HESPERANGE
N° Société : 0 476 709 468
N° Société : 04086268
N° Société : 34200 147 0000
N° Société : B114 951
N° TVA : BE 476 709 468
N° TVA : UK 788 004 414
N° TVA : NL 8127 37 957 B01
N° TVA : LU 20 99 36 74