Regulation Of 3g Coverage And National Roaming

Since 3G licences were awarded back in early 2000, the success of this technology has been mixed. It is still hard, if not impossible, to find a country in Europe where GSM was abandoned in favour of 3G as the standard, although in most countries the two coexist. In most countries, rollout of 3G infrastructure happened gradually and certainly not as fast as predicted at the time of the licence award. Most of the licences were awarded with conditions on the population coverage, most of which have not been met. This report aims to explore these conditions and the regulators' behaviour with respect to the operators failing to meet them. It therefore considers 3G licensing issues and regulatory treatment of 3G in Europe. In particular, it focuses on licence allocation, coverage obligations, possibility of national roaming, and the use of shared infrastructure.