BRUSSELS, Belgium-The European Commission said it adopted a proposal for the coordinated introduction of third-generation, or Universal Mobile Telecommunications System technology, in Europe.
EC said the proposal responds to concerns from the European mobile sector for greater legal certainty given the scale of investments the new technology will require.
EC said the proposal requires:
Member states to put into place a harmonized system for authorizing UMTS systems by Jan. 1, 2000, to allow these services to begin in 2001.
UMTS licensing should seek to ensure the development of pan-European services, which implies that the licensed systems should support roaming.
Authorization systems applied by European Union member states for the harmonized provision of UMTS services must take into consideration European standards developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), with particular importance placed on a common, open and internationally competitive air-interface standard.
The timely availability of spectrum achieved by way of mandates given to the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations. EU ministers and the European Parliament must approve the proposal in order for it to become law.
ETSI members reached a consensus Jan. 29 to adopt the UTRA standard, UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access, that draws on both wideband-Code Division Multiple Access and Time Division Multiple Access-CDMA proposals for third-generation technology deployment in Europe.
