VIA SATELLITE: Does the failure of a mobile satellite service in Japan offer a warning for players in Europe?
REDING: Mobile broadcasting is an important innovative service, but it is just one of many potential ways for exploiting a mobile satellite system. One should also note that there are important differences between the European and Japanese competitive environments. For instance, approximately 84 percent of Japanese mobile subscriptions are for 3G mobile services, which give access to viable mobile broadcasting solutions, whereas the level of 3G subscriptions in Europe is only approximately 11 percent. Another important factor is that Japan is much more densely populated than an average European country, which makes the business case for terrestrial infrastructures much stronger. The main lesson would be an obvious necessity for the candidate mobile satellite services operators to weigh carefully the different factors affecting their business prospects across Europe, about which we remain optimistic.
VIA SATELLITE: Why was a pan-European licensing structure not implemented sooner?
REDING: Carefully preparing such decisions takes time, especially when they are of a complex nature concerning the use of spectrum and touching often sensitive questions of national sovereignty and competencies. In order to be able to organize a single selection and authorization process of operators for all member states at European level, we first need to assign the same spectrum to operators in each member state so that they can provide their satellite services at a pan-European level.
Next, to prepare the mobile satellite services decision in a public consultation lasting from 30 March to 30 May 2007, we sought the advice of relevant experts and the wider public. Following all the responses received, the Commission then needs to coordinate its proposals with the 27 member states, who all have to give their opinions before the decision can be taken. Given that the proposal for the selection procedure had then to pass through the European Parliament and the Council, we had an impressive run and the decision was adopted in only 10 months.
So all the time-consuming preparatory coordination work was worth it. We can say that today, there is one market, not 27, in Europe for mobile satellite services. I hope that next time when we want to create economies of scale for a specific cross-border communication service, we will be able to benefit from the experience made with the mobile satellite decision and arrive at such a good result in only half the time.
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