The provision of electronic communications services by Public Organizations: New operators?

Abstract

Many Municipalities in Spain provide Internet service to their citizens, and this way of acting has generated controversies regarding the need of clarification on when they provide it as an ancillary activity to a service specified in art. 25 LBRL, in self-provision regime, or with limitations and without becoming electronic communications operator. Therefore, in the first case, art. 6.2 LGTel excludes them from the obligation to communicate the Registry of Operators prior to the start of the activity, even in the case of a provision to third parties. These issues were first tried to be solved by the CMT, in Circular 1/2010, where it delimits the concepts of self-provision and the principle of private investor in a market economy. And then, after the approval of the WiFi4EU Regulation and its WiFi4EU Program, the problematic around this issue has increased and tried to be solved by the CNMC, in its Agreement of May 10, 2018.