EU divided over telecom regulation
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Internal divisions within the European Commission about the shape of a policy review for the telecommunications industry due this quarter sparked sharp criticism from industry analysts Tuesday.
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The European Union's 27 national telecom authorities must submit plans to regulate the single European market by Feb. 16Â or face ceding those powers to the European Commission, Telecommunications Commissioner Viviane Reding has warned.
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To a large degree, the concerns of Net phone provider Nuvio illustrate how the industry has become politically divided.
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A divided Federal Communications Commission passed rules Wednesday restricting local phone competition. The move is expected to raise prices for many consumers across the country and for small businesses in larger cities.
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The market's changing, so the regs will too Telecoms regulator Ofcom is to investigate whether changes in the UK mobile market should also mean changes in the way it is regulated.â¦
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Google, Intel, Microsoft, Skype try to persuade European regulators that VoIP providers should not have to provide access to emergency services.
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The U.N.ÃÂs International Telecommunication Union, a global arbiter of telecommunications technologies, is debating what role it should play in the Internet age.
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Any mandatory EU intervention to cut  the price of sending text messages or using the Internet while  traveling abroad would be limited to the wholesale level, the  European Union's top telecoms regulator said on Thursday.
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The U.N.Âs International Telecommunication Union, a global arbiter of telecommunications technologies, is debating what role it should play in the Internet age.
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(InfoWorld) - The take-up rate of broadband Internet access slowed sharply across Europe last year, while in some key markets, former monopoly operators are reclaiming market share lost to rivals in recent years, the European Competitive Telecommunications Association said in a statement Thursday. ECTA believes the two trends are connected. Growth in the number of broadband subscriptions grew 7 percent in the third quarter of last year, compared with 23 percent in the third quarter of 2005, according to the ECTA Broadband Scorecard, a quarterly analysis of the market. Growth almost stalled in a number of countries, including Denmark and Belgium, which experienced justÂ 3 percent growth. France saw growth slow to 10 percent after a much stronger performance in 2005, the analysis found. Spain, Sweden, and Austria also suffered a slow-down, it said. "The Scorecard shows that growth has stalled in a number of countries where we have seen the power of the incumbent on the increase, including Denmark and Belgium, which experienced a paltry 3 percent growth in broadband penetration," said Steen Clausen, managing director of ECTA. France has fallen to eighth place in ECTA's scorecard, well behind the U.K. for the first time, he said. "This is extremely disappointing news from some of the countries that have traditionally been at the forefront of Europe's broadband revolution," Clausen said. "Until recently, France was the poster child for broadband with some of the most attractive triple-play packages in Europe. It now needs to be vigilant if it is to maintain its position," he added. In contrast, in Germany, Deutsche Telekom's market share dropped below 50 percent for the first time in the third quarter of last year, and at the same time, it had a surge in growth in broadband penetration. The U.K. also experienced faster growth in broadband subscriptions. "It seems that the U.K. has learned some of the lessons that propelled France up the league table and is now reaping those rewards with a multitude of offers to consumers. Germany too is starting to show signs of progress, which is very welcome after a slow start," Clausen said. Europe is home to some of the world's leading broadband countries. However, its position in the fast track of broadband take-up globally could be put at risk if regulators do not act to re-enforce competition and open markets, ECTA warned. The link between increased power for incumbents and stagnation has been confirmed by studies, including one from SPC Network, which concluded that Europe could gain an extra 20 million broadband lines by opening markets further to competition. "This is a powerful warning for governments not to protect national champions, either now or for the future," Clausen said. "Monopolies have never been good for consumers, and in some industries, governments have to take action to let competition flourish. In energy, for example, the Commission is proposing extra measures to open markets to competition. We believe this could provide some valuable lessons for telecoms." European Union rankings in the third quarter of the last three years are as follows: Ranking Q3 2004 Q3 2005 Q3 2006 1 Sweden Denmark Denmark 2 Denmark Netherlands Netherlands 3 Netherlands Finland Finland 4 Belgium Sweden Sweden 5 Finland Belgium U.K. 6 France France Luxembourg 7 Austria U.K. Belgium 8 U.K. Luxembourg France 9 Germany Austria Austria 10 Portugal Germany Germany 11 Spain Portugal Portugal 12 Italy Italy Italy 13 Luxembourg Spain Spain 14 Ireland Ireland Ireland 15 Greece Greece Greece The ECTA Broadband Scorecard is available at the association's Web site.
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The European Union has ordered member states to change laws and regulations before August to allow use of wireless ultra-wideband technology.
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Regulators will tell Europe's mobile phone operators to  cut the cost of overseas texting and internet access.
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An EU commissioner hints of regulatory action if cooperative international roaming doesn't extend from voice to data.
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In a panel discussion today concerning the future of technology policy in the European Union, Japan, and the United States, it became apparent that the EU's and the US's opinions on mobile TV are diametrically opposed.
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The promise of mobile TV combined wtih a lack of available wireless spectrum has European cellular operators and handset vendors scrambling for an answer.
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(InfoWorld) - The European Commission asked the German regulatory authority, the Federal Network Agency, Monday to do more to ensure a level playing field in the market for high-speed optical fiber connections to the home or office. It is asking the regulator to help secure adequate access to the market for competitors to Deutsche Telekom AG. The Commission -- the executive and regulatory branch of the European Union -- also asked the national regulator to complete its market analysis for access to the new super fast networks, dubbed next-generation networks (NGNs). "The Commission is keen to ensure that NGNs can be deployed and made accessible in a consistent and transparent manner across Europe," said Viviane Reding, EU telecom commissioner. "It is vital that we ensure effective competition and the legal certainty necessary for all market players to invest in new products and services that will benefit consumers." In May the Federal Network Agency notified the Commission of rules designed to force Deutsche Telekom to grant competitors access to its copper fixed telephone network. As Deutsche Telekom is upgrading its network by rolling out optical fibre-based connections, these rules also apply during the transition to the new infrastructure. In a letter sent to the national regulator Monday, the Commission did not challenge its market definition of local loop unbundling but raised a number of issues on regulatory remedies. Having examined the rules, the Commission said they were a step in the right direction but ultimately they have failed to ensure fair competition. "There are more issues to be tackled, we want more remedies," said Martin Selmayr, a Commission spokesman in charge of telecom-related issues, at a press conference Monday. The rollout of fiber closer to the customers, normally to the street cabinets, enables the provision of high bandwidth services but it raises important issues regarding the position of alternative operators that currently benefit from access obligations of Deutsche Telekom's existing networks. As alternative operators in Germany roll out their own infrastructure to local exchanges, these operators now need an economic way of reaching the new access points provided in street cabinets. The Commission is asking the German telecom regulator to guarantee that access to Deutsche Telekom's existing copper network by its competitors remains efficient during the rollout of NGNs. In the new networks, the number of access points required by an alternative operator will be many times higher than that for the traditional fixed telephony network. In many cases there would no longer be a business case for alternative operators to extend their network down to the street cabinets, the Commission said. Therefore, the Commission stresses the importance of ensuring appropriate alternative access solutions as NGNs are deployed. The Commission can't force the national regulator to take action but its opinion cannot be ignored, Selmayr said. At the same time, the deployment of NGNs raises questions as to how competitors may continue benefiting from current access obligations, in the future, while maintaining incentives to invest for both the incumbent and new entrants. Deutsche Telekom has begun delivering IP (Internet Protocol) services such as telephony, television and Internet access over VDSL (Very high bit rate DSL) to customers in some German cities. It has asked the regulator to exempt its VDSL service from a requirement that it lease its infrastructure to competitors on reasonable terms, claiming that without the exclusive right to use the infrastructure, it cannot fund the necessary investment.
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Ruled not to be uncompetitive The much-awaited Euro Tariff cap for mobile phone roaming took one more step towards becoming law today, with approval from the EU ministers in charge of competitiveness.â¦