On 17 November 2021, the Telecoms (Security) Act 2021, amending the Communications Act 2003, was enacted, with its provisions coming into force over time. The legislation: imposes new primary security obligations on communications providers; enables the UK to make the (currently draft) ‘Designated Vendor Direction’ in respect of Huawei; and will be further operationalised by …
Summary By the end of 2021, many corporate transactions in the communications, data infrastructure, artificial intelligence, satellite and space technologies sectors (and some others) will be subject to mandatory notification to, and national security review by, the UK government. Implementation timetable The National Security and Investment Act 2021 (“Act“) became part of UK law on …
On 27 April 2021, Ofcom announced the final results of the UK’s 2021 5G (700 MHz and 3.6-3.8 GHz bands) spectrum auction. The auction raised £1.379 bn pounds, only slightly higher than the £1.1bn reserve price. Results At the end of the assignment stage (27 April 2021), Ofcom granted the following UK spectrum licences: EE …
Regulation of voice call termination in UK
The European Commission has proposed a ‘digital compass’ to set its course for a digitally empowered Europe by 2030. The UK’s Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) has also set out its top ten priorities for a technology driven future to ‘build back better’ following the Covid19 pandemic. European Digital Compass At a press …
On 24 November 2020, the UK Government started the legislative process for a new Telecoms (Security) law which will, when passed into law, provide statutory backing for their already announced policy objective to exclude Huawei (and potentially other ‘high risk vendors’) from the UK’s 5G (and other) networks on the grounds on national security. This …
In a notice published today, 18 November 2020, Ofcom specified that the days for receipt of applications to participate in the 2021 UK 5G spectrum auctions are between the times of 10:00 (UK time) on 3 December 2020 and 16:00 (UK time) on 4 December 2020. More detail on the upcoming auctions can be found in this earlier post.
On 25 August 2020, the European Commission proposed a regulation to set Europe-wide (lower) voice termination rates of 0.2 euro cents per minute for mobile voice and 0.07 euro cents per minute for fixed voice. The introduction of these new termination rate ceilings are subject to: a three year ‘glide path’ (to 1 Jan 2024) …
The US has updated its rules to prevent Huawei’s access to commercially available chips that use US technology in a move that could sound the death knell for the Chinese telecoms firm. Under new restrictions, announced on Monday 17 August by the US Commerce Department, companies globally will need to obtain a licence to sell …
On 3 August 2020, Ofcom confirmed that the UK’s 5G auction would go ahead, with bidding starting in January 2021. The auction is set to increase the spectrum available for mobile in the UK by 18%. This should lead to better and faster mobile data services. 80MHz of spectrum will be auctioned in the (recently …