Telecommunications

The process of liberalizing the telecommunications sector in all EU member states by eliminating the predominantly state-run monopolies began with the Green Paper of 1987.

At first, the European legal framework with which the national regulatory authorities were to accelerate and promote the opening of markets consisted of various EU directives, Commission recommendations and key documents published by the ONP Committee. In Austria, this first European regulatory framework was implemented in the Telecommunications Act 1997 (TKG 1997).
However, the progress of liberalization made it necessary to refine the definition of regulatory duties and instruments. As a result, a new package of EU directives was announced in 2002. This framework was implemented under national law by the Austrian Telecommunications Act 2003 (TKG 2003), which took effect on August 20, 2003.

In 2006, the European Commission began to revise the EU legal framework in the course of the Review 2006, mainly as a result of experience to date with the legal framework from 2003 and market trends such as convergence and VoIP. The revision process began with consultation procedures, the results of which will be included in the initial draft directives in 2007.