EU lawmakers appear to be taking a tougher stance in favor of net neutrality than rights advocates originally feared, said European Digital Rights and La Quadrature du Net Thursday. The European Parliament Industry, Research and Energy Committee (ITRE) approved a resolution that, as amended, has more positive than negative aspects, they said. The main concern is that it backs the European Commission’s proposal to “wait and see” if there actually are net neutrality problems before regulating, they said. A plenary vote on the text is expected next month.
BRUSSELS -- There are “severe imbalances” in the growth rate of Internet traffic, with more revenue generated by traffic that’s not monetized by network operators, London School of Economics (LSE) Professor-Technology Management Jonathan Liebenau said Monday. Different business models apply to the different segments that generate traffic, and network operators aren’t part of the most profitable business activities, he told the Financial Times/European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association digital agenda summit. Given EU goals to boost broadband build-out, the reluctance to invest in next-generation networks threatens the ability of network operators to respond, he said. That won’t change until investors are sure network owners will eventually benefit from traffic growth, he said. Speakers also urged regulators to safeguard net neutrality.
BRUSSELS -- Telecom companies must stop bickering and speak with a single voice if they want to reach their potential as a driver of growth in the European economy, several speakers said Monday at the Financial Times/European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association digital agenda summit. Considering the “tremendous investments” needed to accomplish the digital agenda, “critical mass is required,” said ETNO Executive Board Chairman Luigi Gambardella. “The minor fights between incumbents and the cries of newer entrants over a few eurocents of access charges belong to the past,” because both sides have a common interest in rolling out the new networks needed to meet consumer demand for new services, he said. But incumbents and their rivals sparred at the meeting over a European Commission proposal to dictate access charges to copper networks.
EU and U.S. industry self-regulation of online behavioral advertising (OBA) gives consumers limited choices and is “enforced” by groups that aren’t independent from the industry they're intended to monitor, the Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue said in a letter last Friday to the head of the EU Article 29 Data Protection Working Party and the director of the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection. The TACD forwarded a June resolution setting out recommendations for actions they want the EU and U.S. to take to counter what they see as privacy threats from new forms of online advertising and data collection. The current self-regulatory approach in Europe and the U.S. is inadequate and fails to address digital data collection practices used to identify online users, the organization told the working party and FTC. Both systems rely mostly on the use of an icon to provide notice of some data collection practices, but icons aren’t enough to tell users about the wide range of collection practices they face, the TACD said. Industry research on the icon-based program already shows that very few users click on it, let alone decide to opt out of having their personal information collected, it said. But the icon is “the foundation of what’s supposed to be a robust program of ‘best’ practices that can effectively empower users to make critical choices about their online privacy,” it said. The TACD said it agrees with the working party that Europe’s self-regulatory system uses an inadequate definition of OBA as “non-personal” data, as does the U.S. program. The advertising industry and trade associations know that OBA allows for tracking and profiling individuals, making the data “deeply personal,” it said. Consumers who click the icon are first dissuaded from taking measures to guard their privacy because they're told that online profiling is chiefly about giving them “appropriate” advertising, isn’t personal and supports their access to a “free” Internet, TACD said. Users aren’t told they'll still be tracked and profiled even if they opt out under a product or data collection service provider category, it said. Under both self-regulatory regimes, sensitive data can be gathered without ensuring users have real opportunities to protect how it’s used, it said. The working party and FTC are “well aware of current and complex OBA related practices” on both sides of the Atlantic such as mobile and online video and social network data used for real-time profile-based targeting, it said. Ad networks and exchanges now routinely integrate a wide range of data on individual users, often in real time, it said. These increasingly standard practices aren’t addressed by self-regulation, it said. The Digital Advertising Alliance in the U.S. and Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe/European Advertising Standards Alliance have created systems principally designed to allow expansion of OBA-related data practices, it said. Consumer groups aren’t opposed to digital marketing, but want to ensure that users’ privacy rights are protected, it said. That’s why the TACD recommended, among other things, that the EU and U.S.: (1) Investigate and act promptly as needed to address new threats to consumer privacy from the growth of real-time tracking and sales of information about people’s online activities on ad exchanges. (2) Commit to developing a global standard for privacy protection and consumer welfare in the digital environment. (3) Ensure that existing personal data protection laws are enforced. (4) Address the constantly evolving techniques advertisers use to profile online users. IAB Europe and the working group will meet Wednesday to discuss the issue, a spokesman for the European Consumers’ Organization said (BEUC). The EU shouldn’t accept the advertising industry’s attempts to redefine people’s Internet usage as non-personal data, BEUC Director General Monique Goyens said. There should be a clear line drawn “as this billion dollar industry is now the currency of the Digital Age,” she said.
The Internet Protocol version 6 Forum began a worldwide testbed for IPv6 products. “Boundv6” was named for the late Jim Bound, developer of Moonv6, a global, permanently deployed, multi-vendor IPv6 network led by the North American IPv6 Task Force and the University of New Hampshire-InterOperability Lab, the forum said Wednesday. Where Moonv6 was about vendor interoperability, the new program aims to create a permanent network initially connecting IPv6-ready, logo- and U.S. government-approved labs where IPv6 users can trial applications and devices “in meaningful test scenarios,” it said.
Reports that the U.K. telecom regulator has delayed its 4G spectrum auction because of legal threats have been blown out of proportion, a source close to the Office of Communications told us Tuesday. The Guardian reported Monday that Ofcom had been expected to publish the auction terms this month but postponed it “after veiled threats of legal action from a number of carriers including O2.” The report insinuates that the auction postponement is because of the threats, but that’s “categorically not the case,” the source said. Ofcom “has been very explicit in its aim to begin the 4G auction as soon as is practicable, and this remains our objective,” an Ofcom spokesman said. But this is a complex area with a large number of technical and competition issues to be considered and resolved before the proposals are finalized, he said. One issue is that a high proportion of U.K. households rely on terrestrial DTV, which much be relocated before 4G can roll out, he said. Because such technical issues must be satisfactorily tackled before new networks can be built, it won’t be possible for mobile operators to start deploying 4G networks until 2013 at the earliest, regardless of when the auction takes place, the spokesman said. The auction could take place in the first half of 2012, the source said.
Transition from Internet Protocol version 4 to IPv6 on mobile networks is lagging because operators don’t see any immediate benefits in the new addressing technology, WirelessE2E LLC founder Murat Bilgic told us. The shift involves major “back-office,” business objective and technological upgrades in the face of customer apathy, he said. Mobile IPv6 could offer services better to consumers if operators made the effort, said WiChorus Technical Fellow Charles Perkins, a co-inventor of the technology.
A proposal by major players in European broadband networks failed to completely win over alternative telecom providers, commercial broadcasters and digital rights activists at a European Commission CEO roundtable in Brussels Wednesday, representatives of those companies said. The 11 recommendations on how to spur investment in broadband, which include a call for differentiated services, were requested by Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes and drafted by corporate chiefs drawn from content providers, equipment makers, investors and telecom operators, the EC said. Kroes said after the meeting that while the work produced no consensus, it “certainly helped to build mutual understanding."
Mobile operators’ failure to end “roaming rip-offs” calls for a “fundamentally new” regulatory approach, said European Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes Wednesday. The European Commission proposed measures to let customers sign roaming agreements separate from their contracts with their national services and keep the same cellphone numbers, and to give alternative providers the right to use others’ networks in other EU countries at regulated wholesale prices. The move brought cautious cheers from the head of the European Parliament’s industry committee. The GSM Association Europe said the changes need “assessing in detail."
BRUSSELS -- Operators may need more spectrum for new wireless services but they also have to use what they already have more efficiently, speakers said Wednesday at a Forum Europe spectrum management conference. One growing area of interest is combining broadcast and mobile broadband services, they said. Shared access models, cognitive technologies and more standardization are also under consideration to help meet Europe’s goal of broadband for all, they said.