European Commissioner Viviane Reding is likely to retain her position overseeing telecom and media, possibly with additional responsibilities over copyright. With the ratification of the EU Lisbon Treaty, EC President Jose Manuel Barroso is to appoint commissioners, sources said. Barroso is awaiting several names before completing assignments, an EC spokeswoman said Monday.
France’s controversial “three-strikes” law, upheld Thursday as constitutional, will be challenged in the country’s highest administrative court, a civil-liberties group, La Quadrature du Net, said the next day. The law, known as HADOPI 2, creates a graduated-response system in which repeat digital infringers will be notified, warned and, in some cases, disconnected from Internet access up to a year. The Constitutional Council ruled the act unconstitutional in July, but the government tweaked several provisions, most of which passed muster in the latest challenge, said a spokesman for La Quadrature. The law may also be subject to attack in the European Court of Justice, he said. Chairman John Kennedy of the International Federation for the Phonographic Industry welcomed the decision, saying France has led the way in delivering effective copyright-protection measures and encouraging users to turn to licensed online music services. The Progress & Freedom Foundation’s Thomas Sydnor praised the measure as “another step forward for common sense and the rule of law on the Internet.” In the U.S., copyright owners must file a federal court complaint and spend thousands of dollars just to alert someone suspected of illegal file-sharing about the problem, he said. As a consumer, Sydnor said, he prefers the French system of successive warnings “to the sudden financial devastation of the John-Doe lawsuit that American law would now require.” He encouraged American ISPs and copyright owners to come up with a similar system.
The European Parliament and Council of Ministers begin formal talks Nov. 4 about Internet access termination, a matter that has blocked approval of a sweeping revamp of telecom regulation. Working to reconcile the two approaches are 27 lawmakers and 27 council representatives, said a spokeswoman for parliament’s industry committee. Informal talks between legislators’ negotiating team and representatives of the Swedish EU presidency representatives began several weeks ago, after governments rejected Amendment 138, approved by the Parliament to ban restrictions on the fundamental rights of Internet users without a prior ruling by judicial authorities, except when public security is threatened. The new text, according to citizens’ rights advocacy group La Quadrature du Net, requires states to respect peoples’ rights in any measures regarding end-user access to e-communications services and applications or use of them. Any measures likely to restrict those freedoms may be taken only “in exceptional circumstances and imposed if they are necessary, appropriate and proportionate within a democratic society,” and they must be subject to procedural safeguards such as effective judicial protection, due process, the presumption of innocence, and the right to be heard, the draft says. Governments are free to require a prior judicial decision authorizing such actions, it says. Lawmakers have come under fire from civil-liberties advocates, consumers, ISPs and others for backing off Amendment 138 after it won overwhelming support in Parliament. The text now apparently under discussion has no requirements of “prior ruling by the judicial authorities”; doesn’t apply to content access or use, opening the door to “three-strikes” policies against digital copyright infringement; and is vague about the meanings of “exceptional circumstances” and other important terms, La Quadrature said. Alejo Vidal-Quadras of Spain and the European People’s Party, who heads the legislative delegation, said members are going into the talks “in a spirit of compromise, but determined to defend users’ rights and committed to the development of a regulatory framework that will incentivize investment and open up the market,” the committee spokeswoman said. If the talks succeed by Dec. 30, the Parliament and council will have 6-8 weeks after that to approve or reject the text, the spokeswoman said. If negotiators can’t agree, or the compromise text isn’t ultimately approved, the telecom package fails, she said. Then the European Commission will have to start over with a new legislative proposal, she said.
European Parliament negotiators are betraying their colleagues and constituents by considering a European Commission proposal said to water down a provision in telecom reform legislation barring governments from terminating Internet access without a prior court order except in national security cases, digital rights activists said last week. ISPs also decried the language allowing states to deny due process prior to Internet termination for, among other “urgent” reasons, the prevention, detection and prosecution of crimes, saying it risks expansion of the French anti- piracy “three-strikes” regime throughout Europe.
Telecommunications sector capital investment is dropping because of economic and regulatory uncertainty, the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association said on Wednesday. The ETNO’s annual “facts and figures” report showed that although the industry has been less hard-hit than others by the global financial crisis, 2008 revenue grew by only 0.8 percent, and investments fell 1 percent. Other findings included: (1) An estimated further revenue decline of 0.5 percent for 2009. (2) ETNO companies continued to spend an average 12 percent of their revenues on investment and to account for 71 percent of total sector investment. (3) The number of Internet and mobile connections is still growing, but the number of fixed lines decreased by 5 percent over the last year. Europe’s 116 million fixed-line broadband subscriptions have now been surpassed by 3G subscriptions of 124 million. (4) Key European innovation trends include development of interactive applications such as networking sites on fixed and mobile broadband platforms, video and music download offers, and residential and office energy consumption monitoring services. The study says that EU regulators must provide investment incentives by creating a regulatory regime that recognizes the risks of rolling out next-generation access networks, ETNO Director Michael Bartholomew said. Competitive telcos are also unhappy about the regulatory state of the sector. The European Competitive Telecommunications Association’s latest broadband scorecard, published Wednesday, showed broadband uptake is slowing and competition across the 27 EU countries isn’t progressing. The ECTA urged the European Commission to “set a vision for innovation and growth across the information and communication technology sector and to crack down on protectionist governments.” New research shows a strong link between effective economic regulation and investment levels in the telecom sector, ECTA said. Companies are looking for places where they won’t face barriers to entry because of poorly applied rules that favor dominant operators, it said. “Europe has been asleep at the wheel for the last two years” when it comes to competitiveness in broadband services, ECTA Chairman Innocenzo Genna said. The report found that 23.5 percent of Europe had broadband access as of April, up from 20.5 percent in April 2008. But that average number masks large differences among countries, with Nordic states and the Netherlands having among the highest usage rates in the world and other nations having much lower rates, ECTA said. There are also wide differences in fiber penetration, with Sweden on top and little or no fiber deployment in some other countries, it said. Incumbents’ average market share rose slightly in the last six months and remained about 50 percent in 12 countries, ECTA said. Research shows telecom investment is influenced by current gross domestic product levels and a country’s standard of regulation, ECTA said. A 10 percent improvement in the regulatory environment to open markets and boost competition would create a 3-6 percent rise in communications investment, it said.
Net neutrality may be off the table in talks between EU governments and lawmakers over telecommunications regulation reform, but it’s far from a dead issue in Europe. With German operator T-Mobile reportedly blocking VoIP calls on its broadband network, the European Commission has come out strongly in favor of net neutrality and, along with national authorities, it’s watching developments in the U.S., they said. Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding promised to deal with the issue in the EU Digital Agenda due in March.
Commercial use of femtocells -- low-power, wireless mini-base stations -- took off this year, but 2010 could see many more new offerings, Femto Forum Chairman Simon Saunders said in an interview. The technology, which provides short- range communications indoors, raises no major regulatory concerns but does create some “interesting wrinkles” that femtocell operators are discussing with regulators, he said. Rollout of femtocells for voice calls could signal a larger move toward mobile data services, Analysys Mason analyst Terry Norman said.
With investment in European broadband infrastructure predicted to reach $441 billion in the next decade, the European Commission Thursday issued guidelines for public financing of high-speed and very-high-speed networks. The guidelines will help EU governments and public authorities ensure their broadband funding plans comply with state aid rules and help boost deployment, said Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes. While most investment will come from private companies, public funding plays a key role in providing broadband access to underserved and non-profitable areas, she said.
Two measures relating to Internet access termination of copyright pirates are moving, one in France and the other in the EU. A revised version of the controversial Creation and Internet law -- which sets up a “three-strikes” regime where suspected infringers are notified, warned and, potentially, blocked from Internet access -- won approval from France’s lower house this week and must now be reconciled with Senate- passed legislation, said Jeremie Zimmermann of French civil liberties group La Quadrature du Net. Meanwhile, the EU Council of Ministers and Parliament are preparing to resolve the impasse over a provision in the telecommunications reform package barring restrictions on Internet use without a court order, an Industry Committee spokeswoman said.
EU states should clear broadcasters from the 800 MHz band and make it available for wireless broadband services by 2015, a European Commission-ordered report recommended this week. The study, by Analysys Mason, DotEcon and Hogan & Hartson, examined what actions are needed at EU level to maximize benefits from the switchover to DTV. It found that the economic benefits of a harmonized approach are large enough to warrant action now, Analysys Mason partner Lee Sanders told us. European countries are reliant on each other for economies of scale, and high-powered transmissions could cause interference if the band isn’t treated uniformly, he said. Several governments, including the U.K., France, and Germany, have already committed to creating an 800 MHz sub-band, so the report, and the EC’s support for it, are another major step toward harmonization, he said. Another key recommendation is that broadcast networks be upgraded to the more advanced compression technology, MPEG-4, he said. Some European countries now use MPEG-2, others MPEG-4, he said. The problem is that when there’s an installed base of MPEG-2 DTV receivers that aren’t compatible with MPEG-4, many set-top boxes won’t work, he said. The report suggested that all receivers sold in Europe be at least as efficient as MPEG-4, he said. That will make broadcast networks more efficient and offer higher capacity, lessening the pain of losing the 800 MHz band, and will boost availability of HDTV, Sanders said. Another potential area for EU-level action is encouraging the use of interleaved spectrum (white spaces) for services auxiliary to broadcast, he said. The issue has proven controversial in the U.K. where wireless microphone companies are upset at being forced out of their nationwide channel in the 800 MHz band (CD Aug 20 p4). But Sanders said the issue is particular to Britain because most European countries don’t have dedicated channels. The report found no shortage of white spaces for such services in the short to medium term, he said. The move from the 800 MHz band is also controversial for broadcasters, he said. It will require a great deal of frequency and network replanning and tough negotiations, particularly with non-EU eastern states such as Russia, he said. The EC will now develop plans to implement the report’s recommendations, Sanders said.