Third-generation mobile and wireless communications system UMTS: ccordinated introduction

The Commission's amended proposal incorporates, in whole or in part, 8 of the 10 amendments adopted by the European Parliament at first reading. The amendments accepted particularly had the purpose of: - replacing the term 'UMTS service providers' with 'organisations providing UMTS networks'. This amendment is compatible with the need to stress network operators rather than service-providers; - amending the reference to the time when, in all likelihood, additional frequency spectrum will be needed, by replacing '2005' with 'within a number of years'; - stating that the list in Annex I includes the minimum features which the UMTS system will be capable of accommodating; - stating that the Commission will be directly entitled to seek effective implementation of international agreements applicable to UMTS; - reformulating the title so as to indicate clearly that Annex I relates to the system capacities needed to accommodate service features. The new formulation also defines more precisely the levels of mobility of the applications: full mobility and low mobility applications in different geographical environments beyond the capability of the second-generation systems such as GSM; - taking account - in Annex I, third part, 'core network' - of call handling, service control and location and mobility management, in line with comments received from industry. The amendments partially accepted by the Commission had the purpose of: - inserting a reference to Community legislation, and particularly to the principles of transparency and non-discrimination; - stating that the reason for limiting the number of UMTS services in the event of incompatibility of certain potential systems is the limited nature of the frequency spectrum. The Commission was unable to accept the amendments seeking to: - include less populated areas within the scope of roaming agreements which organisations providing UMTS networks should have the right and duty to negotiate with the aim of guaranteeing roaming throughout the Community; - replacing the terms 'full roaming between GSM' with 'full roaming between all GSM services'.�