Telecoms, Media & Internet Laws & Regulations 2016: United Kingdom
This article was produced by Olswang LLP, which joined with CMS on 1 May 2017.
This chapter provides an overview of the EU Regulatory Framework for electronic communications and services in the United Kingdom. To read the full article, click here.
Telecoms:
The telecoms sector in the UK is one of the most open and competitive in the world. It was liberalised several decades ago when, in 1984, the former state-owned incumbent, British Telecom (“BT”), was privatised and Mercury Communications was licensed to offer fixed national networks and public telephony in competition with BT. Since then, and in particular since European harmonisation of the sector and the unbundling of the local loop, a large number of players have entered the market, offering increasingly sophisticated, competitive and innovative communications services...
Audio-visual media distribution:
From four terrestrial TV channels in the 1980s, the UK audiovisual market has grown to be a very diverse and competitive market, with many players, both domestic and international. Analogue television has been switched off and all UK television homes now receive digital signals, either over-the-air or by cable or satellite distribution. The UK is also a leader in the delivery of on-demand content, across a broad range of devices...
Internet:
The internet infrastructure market in the UK has been liberalised. The [...] largest four domestic internet service providers are BT, Virgin Media, Sky and TalkTalk. Either organically or through acquisitions, these four players have accumulated user bases ranging from 4 to 8 million connections. Everything Everywhere (with 834,000 connections) is the other major provider...
This article appeared in the 2016 edition of The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Telecoms, Media & Internet Laws & Regulations; published by Global Legal Group Ltd, London.
