CAMBRIDGE, U.K. -- While European regulators eyed major changes to their spectrum policies, a coalition of U.K. wireless networking and advocacy groups said current approaches may violate European human rights laws. With the concept of a “spectrum commons” (unlicensed spectrum) under consideration by the European Commission (EC) and the U.K. Office of Communications (Ofcom), Open Spectrum UK said regulators must justify licensing at all.
Dugie Standeford
Dugie Standeford, European Correspondent, Communications Daily and Privacy Daily, is a former lawyer. She joined Warren Communications News in 2000 to report on internet policy and regulation. In 2003 she moved to the U.K. and since then has covered European telecommunications issues. She previously covered the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and intellectual property law matters. She has a degree in psychology from Duke University and a law degree from the University of Tulsa College of Law.
BARCELONA -- VoIP services should “definitely not” be regulated, but incumbent telcos should, Skype CEO and co- founder Niklas Zennstrom said here Thurs. Other speakers said regulation has a place in VoIP, though there’s no consensus on what it might be. The comments came on the 2nd day of the European Conference of Postal & Telecom Administrations’ European Electronic Communications Regulatory Forum.
BARCELONA -- Europe’s e-communications regulatory goals are valid but implementation and results of the new regulatory framework (NRF) are “unsatisfactory,” Finland’s regulator said here Tues. Saying the framework has major problems, FICORA Deputy Dir. Martin Andersson urged the European Commission (EC) to fix them. The Commission is reviewing its framework, with a report due mid-2006 on its effectiveness, an official said at the European Electronic Communications Regulatory Forum here Wed.
BARCELONA -- Europe needs “a fundamental reversal” in its handling of spectrum issues, a European Commission (EC) official said here Tues. Spectrum trading may be the “major next step” regulators must tackle, demanding political agreement, said Peter Scott, head of policy development for the EC Information Society & Media Directorate-Gen. Spectrum trading will involve a “conceptual leap” from govt. assignment of spectrum to monitoring and enforcement, Scott said at a European e- communications regulatory forum sponsored by the EC and the European Conference of Postal & Telecom Administrations (CEPT).
European telecom regulators must be vigilant about protecting competition in the VoIP and other emerging services markets following recent buy-backs by 4 incumbent telcos of their former ISPs, several industry sources said last week. Over the last couple of years, France Telecom re-acquired Wanadoo, Deutsche Telekom (DT) is in the process of reabsorbing T-Online (ISP), and Belgacom resumed control of Skynet. In Feb., Spanish incumbent Telefonica bought out its former ISP, Terra Networks. The reabsorptions aren’t necessarily bad news, but they could lead to competition snarls if regulators don’t head off discriminatory behavior, critics said.
Britain’s VoIP industry unveiled a code of practice for Internet telephony providers Tues. at a parliamentary reception in London. The code was created by the Internet Telephony Services Providers Assn. (ITSPA), which represents network operators, service providers and other businesses involved in supplying VoIP in the U.K. According to a draft, the code requires that ITSPA members: (1) Not promote use of their services for illegal purposes and take appropriate steps to guard against such uses. (2) Take reasonable steps to ensure that promotional materials comply with applicable laws and rules. (3) Warn residential customers that power failures or other failures of a customer’s underlying data network may cause voice-over-data-networks services to fail. (4) Advise residential customers of significant differences in service reliability between VoIP services and circuit- switched public telephony networks. (5) Give customers clear information when a service doesn’t provide access to emergency calls or isn’t as reliable as circuit-switched public telephony. (6) Notify customers when a member can’t offer number portability. The code of practice outlines information to appear in customer contracts and defines a process for handling complaints about code breaches. The Dept. of Trade & Industry (DTI) is “very positive” about VoIP’s potential benefits for business and consumers; it could spur more use of broadband, DTI’s Claire Hobson said. VoIP is one of the first major policy decisions the Office of Communications (Ofcom) tackled in its first year, said Andrew Heaney. Ofcom’s final decision on whether and how to regulate VoIP awaits European Commission guidance, he said.
LONDON -- British Telecom (BT) should be split up to end the “fundamental” conflict between its duty to its shareholders and its obligation to give rivals access to its network, a competitor said Tues. The Office of Communications (Ofcom), nearing the end of a strategic review of Britain’s telecom sector, has proposed requiring BT to provide “equivalence of access” and make drastic changes in its corporate behavior. But Energis CEO John Pluthero said efforts to resolve BT’s commercial dilemma could end up with the telco owning an entity opposed to its own goals and objectives. At that point, it might as well be severed, Pluthero told the parliamentary Trade & Industry Select Committee.
Europe’s telecom and entertainment sectors agreed last week that intellectual property rights (IPR) are the lifeblood of the content industry and content is key to unleashing broadband. The acknowledgment by each side of the other’s importance to the rollout of digital content paved the way for productive talks at last Thurs.’s European Telecom Network Operators’ Assn. (ETNO) workshop on content and convergence, participants said. But they said the historic agreement on IPR -- and the need for interoperability -- is just the beginning, and several issues remain unresolved.
LONDON -- The U.K.’s telecom regulator “won’t rule out” a universal service order (USO) for broadband, it said Tues. However, given the significant progress in rollout the past 5 years, Ofcom will wait 12-18 months before recommending the govt. impose a USO, said Office of Communications (Ofcom) Chief Exec. Stephen Carter. Doing so now would be “preemptive,” he said at a hearing of the Commons Dept. of Trade & Industry Committee here Tues.
LONDON -- British Telecom (BT) may be “talking the talk” but competitors have yet to see it “walk the walk” on giving rivals equal access to its last-mile copper loop, Commons Trade & Industry (DTI) Committee Chmn. Martin O'Neill said Tues. The committee is looking into the Office of Communications’s (Ofcom’s) strategic review of the country’s telecom sector. Both Ofcom officials, ISPs and competitive telcos said that while BT’s proposals for providing greater access to rivals sounds good, the devil is in the details.