Govts. to Push for ‘Concerted Action’ on Spam
Network and data security, including squelching spam, will be a key European issue this year. Austria, which took the European Presidency Jan. 1, listed spam among 4 telecom areas on which it will focus. Austria and Finland, to head the Presidency as of July, said they'll pay “particular attention” to beefier network security. EU presidencies rotate every 6 months.
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More than 60% of email is spam, with nuisance messages seen increasingly as a threat to network stability and user confidence in the Internet, Austria’s govt. said, declaring that spam costs worry businesses, communications providers and end-users, and boost concerns about the “fusion of spam and computer viruses.” So “concerted action against spam” has high priority and both Presidencies said they'll keep backing international antispam activities.
This year also sees the EC start a review of a new regulatory framework (NRF) on e-communications. While the European Commission isn’t expected to propose legislative amendments until after Austria’s presidency, the govt. said the NRF should seek more competition, a single regulatory framework for all transmission networks, better protection of user rights and easier market entry. Another hot regulatory issue is EC review of the TV Without Frontiers (TVWF) directive. Both Austria and Finland said they would aim for accord on a recent EC draft revised directive “as soon as possible.”
As the EC pushes for takeup of data & communications technology to boost Europe’s economy, Austria said, it will address R&D spending, efficient radio spectrum management, effective, interoperable administration of digital rights, e-govt. services and library digitization. Austria and Finland also said they'd “make every effort” to finalize deployment and operation rules for the European Satellite Radio Navigation System GALILEO, with special heed to security, safety and finances, international cooperation and negotiation of a concession contract.
On data protection, the govts. said, they will promote data sharing among law enforcement and judicial authorities based on a Commission proposal to boost data protection in criminal cases. They'll also discuss an EC evaluation of its 1995 data protection directive.
Review of the NRF is a big issue for industry, European telcos agree. Incumbents want the Austrian Presidency to give the Commission clear guidance for the review, said a spokesman for the European Telecom Network Operators’ Assn. (ETNO). A key challenge for the European Union (EU) is to “withstand pressure of the European incumbents to roll back regulation” of their broadband fiber networks, said Axel Spies, a European telecom lawyer at Swidler Berlin.
Another key issue for telcos is TVWF review, the ETNO spokesman said. The Presidency must ensure embryonic “non-linear (on-demand)” services aren’t overregulated, he said, since that could constrain content of all sorts -- without which people won’t be interested in using the Web, mobile phones and new television technologies.
Mandatory retention of Internet and telecom traffic data “remains a hot potato,” said Spies. A directive okayed last month by the European Parliament “leaves many questions open,” he said: “The Austrian Presidency must use its influence to ensure that carriers are properly reimbursed and that the retention rules of the individual EU member states won’t widely differ, because this will seriously harm cross-border services such as VoIP.”
The nature of EU presidencies -- which rotate every 6 months -- leaves each “fairly impotent and dictated by agendas that have been set for a long time,” the FEDMA spokesman said. “For this reason alone, the Austrian Presidency, like all others, risks not achieving very much at all."