This has been the “year of progress” for deployment of femtocells, low-power, wireless mini-base stations that provide short-range communications indoors, Femto Forum Chairman Simon Saunders said in an interview. The number of commercial services has probably tripled in the past year, with 17 running worldwide, he said. The technology is so useful that the forum is looking for ways to embed it in businesses, public spaces and, eventually outdoors for LTE services, he said. The momentum is expected to accelerate next year as multiple uses for femtocells launch, said Aditya Kaul, ABI Research practice director, mobile networks.
New technologies and uneven application of privacy laws hurt users and businesses, the European Commission said Thursday. It proposed a policy approach for updating and toughening the 15-year-old EU data protection directive. The current measure aims to protect individuals’ fundamental rights and boost Europe’s internal market by allowing the free flow of data, the EC said. Those goals are still valid, but the directive can’t cope with the online environment, where people share and companies collect huge amounts of personal information, it said. The legislation doesn’t fully address the challenges of cloud computing, social networking sites, Web-connected mobile devices, user-generated content and other things, it said. Those technologies have “pushed individuals to the forefront” in managing their own personal data, requiring policy makers to shift focus, it said. Online data protection policies are often unclear and non-compliant with existing rules, it said. Under the proposed strategy, collection and use of personal data for such things as online behavioral ads will have to be kept to a minimum and users given clear information about how and for how long their data is gathered and used, it said. People should be able to give informed consent to the processing of their data when surfing on the Internet and should have the “right to be forgotten” when the information is no longer needed or they want it deleted, the EC said. And users should be informed when their personal information is accessed and used illegally, it said. Current law requires telecom providers to notify users and regulators of data breaches, but the EC said it’s considering extending that obligation to other sectors as well. Businesses need relief from the administrative red tape caused by divergent application of data protection rules across Europe, national privacy authorities must be strengthened and the directive must be better enforced, the EC said. Harmonizing the rules -- or limiting the extent to which a particular country can diverge from them -- will provide better guidance in cases such as Google Street View, which has met with differing responses in Europe, it said. “We're not trying to race against technology,” a spokesman said at a news briefing when asked how the EC can keep up with the pace of change. The updated directive will set general principles that will, like the current measure, be technology neutral, he said. The lack of harmonization creates enormous challenges for small- and mid-sized technology companies who can’t develop cutting-edge applications for cloud computing because of complex and sometimes conflicting data protection provisions, said Association for Competitive Technology President Jonathan Zuck. Internet business practices don’t always respect the current requirements and such breaches fuel a lack of consumer confidence, said the European Consumers’ Organization. It praised the EC for pushing for more transparency and data collection minimization. Comments on the strategy are due Jan. 15 -- http://xrl.us/bh6t2z. The EC said it will propose legislation next year.
The U.K. Office of Communications rejected calls to investigate an IPTV service proposed by major TV and communications providers that would offer digital terrestrial channels and Internet TV services over set-top boxes connected. Project Canvas -- from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five, British Telecom, TalkTalk and Arqiva -- was challenged by Virgin Media and IP Vision, which said the companies involved could withhold programming from competing platforms and they haven’t made their technical standards available to those outside the venture, Ofcom said. There were also complaints that use of the Project Canvas brand, “YouView,” is tied to the specified user interface/electronic program guide, and that the venture is likely to harm competition between TV platforms, the regulator said. It declined to act, however, saying YouView is at such an early stage that investigation would be premature. IPTV is an emerging sector and YouView’s impact on the market won’t be known for some time, Ofcom said. Moreover, it’s likely the offering will benefit viewers and consumers, and whether it hurts competition in the ways alleged depends on how the market develops and how the companies act, particularly regarding access to content and issuing technical standards, it said. Nevertheless, said Ofcom CEO Ed Richards, “if evidence does emerge in the future that YouView causes harm to the interests of viewers and consumers we may reconsider whether to investigate.” YouView is expected to launch in the first half of 2011, Ofcom said. A Virgin Media spokesperson said the company is “perplexed and disappointed” by the decision but won’t comment further until it has examined the statement and reasoning in more detail. The Telegraph newspaper reported last month that YouView may run afoul of YouTube’s trademarks. YouView CEO Richard Halton was quoted as saying the branding of the set-top box echoed the name “Freeview” to alert consumers that the new service is the next generation of free-to-air television. YouView also reportedly said it’s unaware of any opposition from YouTube owner Google to the name.
Ireland’s High Court refused to order UPC to stop its subscribers from downloading copyrighted music, the Irish Times and others reported Monday. The Irish Recorded Music Association, whose members are Warner Music, Universal Music, Sony BMG and EMI Records, had asked the court to force ISPs to adopt a “three-strikes” regime. Justice Peter Charleton said despite the fact that Internet piracy hurts the recording industry, Irish law doesn’t provide for identifying and disconnecting Internet users who are illegally copying music files -- creating a gap that means the country isn’t obeying EU law, the Times reported. UPC said it will continue to work with key stakeholders to address the main concerns of all relevant parties in the file-sharing debate and will maintain its strong stance against illegal activity on its network. But under the “mere conduit” principle, ISPs can’t be held liable for content transmitted across their networks, the ISP said. The ruling supports the principle that ISPs aren’t liable for the actions of subscribers, the company said. IRMA Chairman Willie Kavanagh called the decision “extremely disappointing.” The Irish government has failed to protect copyright owners’ constitutional rights by not adopting the EU copyright directives properly, he said. IRMA now looks to the government to vindicate those rights and could “seek compensation for the past and continuing losses from the State,” Director General Dick Doyle said.
There’s no net neutrality problem requiring regulatory intervention, Europe’s cable and mobile phone sectors said in response to a European Commission consultation on the issue (CD Oct 8 p8). If net neutrality is understood to include actions such as blocking access to certain traffic, there’s no issue as far as the cable industry is concerned, Cable Europe said in draft comments. Cable operators have nothing to gain from keeping customers from content and anyone who claims such activities occur has the burden of proving it, it said. If the issue is about traffic management, that’s also a non-starter, Cable Europe said. “Traffic management is a good and necessary tool,” and content and service providers must be left free to negotiate contracts, it said. “Fruitful and non-emotive debate” should take account of the necessity for reasonable traffic management, it said. Anyone in the Internet value chain should be able to create new business models, but there must be a clear distinction between the upstream market -- the relationship between Web companies/network access seekers and network operators -- and the downstream market, which concerns the relationship between Internet access providers and end users, it said. The former must be allowed to develop within the limits of competition law, while the latter may need traffic management transparency standards and quality-of-service definitions within the scope of the revised EU telecom rules, it said. A “truly neutral” network would subject users to a “bandwidth lottery” at peak time, it said. Moreover, setting rigid QoS requirements runs the risk of creating a far too static framework for the Internet, because QoS definitions can be easily outdated by new technologies and hamper innovation, it said. Nor should minimum QoS conditions be used as a door to impose other requirements on operators, it said. The GSM Association also rejected the idea that a net neutrality problem exists. Europe’s mobile markets are very competitive, and preemptive regulation restricting traffic management and service differentiation would undermine the digital economy by excluding new business models, locking in today’s technologies and stifling innovation, the GSMA said. Mobile operators need traffic management for content caching, content control and filtering, such as keeping minors from adult sites, active monitoring of network performance and capacity planning and spectrum, it said. GSMA members are “actively investigating” solutions to QoS issues, it said.
Whether Europe has a net neutrality problem, and if so what the European Commission should do about it, remains far from resolved, judging from several responses to an EC public consultation on the issues. The inquiry closed Sept. 30 and comments haven’t yet been posted. The position taken by telecom companies and ISPs -- which say brisk competition among providers precludes a need for regulation -- is clearly at odds with that of digital rights activists and public broadcasters that say rules may be necessary to keep the Internet open.
Online advertisers must not resurrect deleted computer cookies to reverse consumer privacy choices, the Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe said Wednesday. “Re-spawning” involves automatically re-establishing previously deleted cookies from back-up copies, the IAB said. It believes the practice is illegal under EU and national data protection rules because it circumvents users’ expressed privacy choice not to have cookies on their computers. The issue has reportedly arisen in the U.S. but not in Europe, IAB Vice President Kimon Zorbas said in an interview. Nevertheless, IAB wants to send a clear signal to online advertisers, agencies and others about what’s acceptable and what isn’t, he said. IAB members work hard to protect lawful business practices and won’t allow individual companies to jeopardize the trust and confidence they've built with users, he said. IAB said it will work with its national associations to provide information on where to report instances of re-spawning and to facilitate referrals when complaints are filed. It wants incidents to be reported to national IABs or data protection authorities.
Principles aimed at preventing threats to Internet and network neutrality were publicized Friday by French telecom regulator ARCEP. The proposals are the culmination of discussions begun last year that enabled the creation of a “moral standard” for Internet access providers and information society services, it said Friday. Net neutrality concerns in France are more about practices that could develop than current malfunctions in the marketplace, but the consequences of those developments could be significant and require specific regulation, ARCEP said. It will start monitoring online companies’ practices to ensure they comply with the principles. The parliament wants to debate the issues with a view to possible legislation, it said. ARCEP recommended that ISPs offer end-users the possibility of sending and receiving content of their choice; using the services and applications they want; connecting to the material and programs they want; and that they provide sufficient and transparent quality of service. For Internet access, the general rule should be no discrimination among content, services, applications or terminals, ARCEP said. Any traffic management undertaken to ensure access must be relevant, proportional, efficient and non-discriminatory, it said. Managed services are permissible in order to encourage innovation, but they may not unduly degrade the quality of Internet access, it said. Access providers must be open with end-users about any service restrictions, ARCEP said. They can’t use the term “unlimited” for offerings, including limitations on “reasonable usage,” that may result in temporary cut-offs, additional charges or excessive lowering of quality of service. ISPs and consumer groups have until the first part of 2011 to agree on what kind of information users should be given about limitations and traffic management, or ARCEP will do it for them. Access and information society services providers must identify and describe the different traffic management practices, including reasonable usage limitations associated with “unlimited” offers, by early 2011. ARCEP will define the principal parameters of Internet access quality of service. Companies which provide access to end-users and information society services must respond fairly and without discrimination to every reasonable interconnection request in order to make content, applications and services available to all users, it said. The effective exercise of users’ right to choose between services, applications and content means information society services providers can’t discriminate between different access providers and must be objective and open about how they select or classify different content tiers, particularly in the case of search engines. The next revision of the EU radio and telecommunications terminal equipment directive should be updated to ensure neutrality of computer terminals, ARCEP said. Separately Friday, Public Knowledge in the U.S. said the extension of line-sharing requirements to broadband operators and a more active regulatory culture have encouraged more competition in Europe than in America, but some level of prior regulation of retail ISPs is still necessary. In comments to the European Commission, Public Knowledge said broadband access providers should be governed by the same general principles of universal access as publicly available telephone services, with other obligations taking effect only where broadband undertakings hold significant market power. The group proposed several regulatory principles and urged the EC to watch out for “red flags” such as when an ISP appears to benefit more from having too little bandwidth and rationing access to it, or when it has other financial or political interests that would benefit from a more controlled or censored Internet. The EC should adopt a net neutrality framework, Public Knowledge said.
In what the European Commission called a “first step” toward a unified defense against cybercrime, it proposed tougher laws against attacks on information systems and a more visible role for Europe’s network security agency. Cybercriminality isn’t just a game for young hackers anymore but an activity increasingly activity under the sway of organized crime, said Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström. Protecting critical infrastructure such as electricity grids is the long-term goal, but that won’t happen unless current legal loopholes are plugged, she said at a news briefing. Both proposals must be approved by the EU Council and Parliament.
"Black holes” in knowledge are slowing take-up of satellite technology in developing and developed countries, officials from the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO) and the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization said in interviews. Governments and regulators in CTO countries lack information on the relative costs and advantages of satellite communications and, in regions such as Africa, often face environmental, affordability and other challenges, said CTO CEO Ekwow Spio-Garbrah. Many officials have yet to see that satellite is a necessary part of the overall telecom picture, said ITSO Director General Jose Toscano.