The European Commission heaped more pressure on the shoulders of Spain and Hungary yesterday, demanding the countries open up 900MHz spectrum for mobile internet services.
Formal requests sent to both countries ask that they quickly adapt to meet the terms of an updated European Union GSM Directive, which requires that spectrum in the frequency is made available to technologies capable of offering advanced mobile broadband services – in particular UMTS.
The Commission states it has received no notice of compliance from Hungary and Spain, which puts domestic carriers at risk of being denied access to the frequencies. All countries have until May 9 to comply with the rules, which are considered a key part of the Commission’s radio harmonization efforts.
It made the call just hours after demanding that Spain and Hungary drop so-called telecoms taxes – threatening legal action against Spain and opening an infringement case against Hungary.
The Commission also named France as a perpetrator of unfair telecoms levies, threatening the same legal action as it did with Spain.