The BBC’s 4 DTV channels are giving viewers poor value for their money and could threaten competition, 2 reports released Wed. found. One, an independent review of the BBC’s DTV services by London Business School management & marketing Prof. Patrick Barwise, was commissioned by Culture Secy. Tessa Jowell in the lead-up to review of the broadcaster’s Royal Charter. The 2nd is from the Office of Communications (Ofcom). While reviewers agreed the BBC has contributed to DTV uptake, they split on its impact on the DTV market. The BBC Board of Governors has until next month to respond to the Barwise report.
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.
The legal squabble over the value-added tax (VAT) rebate for 3G license purchases shows how badly the European spectrum allocation system needs revamping, a spokesman for the GSM Assn. (GSMA) said Fri. Last week, the VAT tribunal -- part of the U.K.’s Dept. for Constitutional Affairs -- referred to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) a claim by several U.K. 3G mobile operators for a refund that could amount to nearly $6 million. The case reportedly may be combined with similar claims filed by operators in Austria, Belgium, Germany and Spain. It could set a precedent on whether VAT must be paid in 3G license auctions. The questions referred to the ECJ “regard matters of European law [that] are relevant to the action being pursued by all 5 successful bidders in the 2000 3G spectrum auction for the recovery of the VAT component of their winning bids,” a Vodafone spokesman said. An ECJ decision isn’t expected for about 2 years, he said. Meantime, the action before the VAT tribunal has been stayed. U.K. and German spectrum auctions accounted for 76% of 3G license fees worldwide 1999-2002, the GSMA spokesman said. Cumulatively the licensing proceeds took more than $100 billion from operators. One consequence was that $700 billion was “wiped off the stock market valuations of European telcos,” he said. The need to rebuild balance sheets caused a “massive downturn” in capital spending, forcing a “significant contraction” of the telecom equipment industry and producing thousands of job losses -- and a slowdown in 3G rollout, he said. The claim raises the question whether auctions are the best way to allocate spectrum, the spokesman said. The issue is moot in some ways because the current licensing round is now finished. However he said that GSMA, which has members in 209 countries and territories, intends to be “more vociferous” than it has about spectrum allocation methods. There are “dozens” of consultations around the world on spectrum, the spokesman said, and GSMA is active in all of them. In its ongoing dialog with regulators, he said, GSMA tries to ensure “that similar situation do not repeat themselves in future by helping regulators look at the bigger picture.”
Fed up with soaring mobile roaming charges, European consumers are pressing national telecom regulators to determine whether the wholesale international roaming market should be regulated. At its 10th plenary session last month, the European Regulators Group (ERG) agreed with the European Commission (EC) that regulators must address this topic. But operators contend regulation isn’t needed, saying it’s in their best interest to open the door to new market players.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Mon. agreed -- under pressure from developing countries and civil society groups that say it has become too protective of rights owners -- to take steps toward formulating a development agenda. Meeting in Geneva, the General Assembly said it welcomed the proposal, first floated by Argentina and Brazil and now supported by other member states, that WIPO revamp its charter and bring its work program into line with its status as a U.N. body. The assembly decided to convene meetings between regular sessions to examine the proposal, as well as documents from other countries. WIPO said it would try to schedule the meetings in conjunction with the 2005 session of the Permanent Committee on Cooperation for Development Related to IP. The meetings will produce a report by July 30, 2005, for consideration at the Sept. 2005 general assembly, WIPO said. Its international bureau was directed to begin “immediate arrangements” with other relevant multilateral organizations, including the World Trade Organization. The Civil Society Coalition (CSC), which represents 26 nongovernmental organizations from 12 countries, said it looked forward to participating in the debate on a development agenda. CSC urged that a treaty currently under discussion on access to knowledge and technology include, among other provisions: (1) Ways to promote openness, including open standards for software and Internet development, open databases, and other approaches that remove barriers to innovation. (2) Minimum exceptions to copyright and patent laws to protect libraries, the visually-impaired, consumers and Internet technologies. Last month, WIPO found itself on the receiving end of strong criticism by consumer groups for straying from its responsibilities as a U.N. agency and protecting IP rights to the exclusion of human rights (WID Sept 14 p1). WIPO officials said then they were open to change.
British Telecom (BT) will announce next week it’s cutting prices on IPStream broadband office products around 5%, a spokesman said Fri. The incumbent has been dueling with U.K. ISPs over its decision this year to raise fees for its end-to-end service (CD Aug 16 p4). It has met with the U.K. ISP Assn. (ISPA) and the U.K. Internet Federation (UKIF), a group of more than 70 small and medium-sized ISPs. Last Thurs., the BT spokesman said, the company met with ISPA to discuss IPStream. BT raised its prices for the products in anticipation of an Office of Communications (Ofcom) requirement on the margin between IPStream and DataStream, BT’s local access product, the spokesman said. When the decision came down, however, some numbers were lower than the telco had anticipated, so BT is now reducing its prices by 5% to bring them in line with Ofcom’s figures. The lower rates -- which Ofcom will have 28 days to review -- will be published next week and retroactive to Sept.1, the spokesman said. The price cut amounts to about 90 pence off BT’s original increase on IPStream products, an ISPA spokesman said. ISPA members are happier than they were, he said, but they're still talking “quite constructively” with BT about the costs. Another issue of concern to ISPs is when BT will introduce usage-based charging (UBC), under which ISPs pay for the amount of data they transfer along BT’s fat pipe. Under the current capacity-based charging (CBC) system, ISPs are charged as if they carried 5,000 customers per main pipe even if the actual number is much smaller. Last week, BT reassured ISPs it’s on target to launch UBC this year, the BT spokesman said. It’s important that ISPs work with BT to get UBC and CBC right, the ISPA spokesman said. Service providers hope UBC will help solve the issues of BT’s price hikes for smaller ISPs, he said. BT’s announcement that its UBC launch is on schedule is “good news,” the ISPA spokesman said. BT’s price reduction is really only BT giving back the 7% increase it “accidentally” overcharged when it acted on Ofcom’s order before it was published, a UKIF spokesman said. “This does not yet represent a change in the price structure on CBC but is really a rebate,” he said. The 5% cut isn’t the “big news we were hoping for,” the spokesman said.
The European Commission’s (EC) approach to development of digital rights management (DRM) technologies is too pro-industry, consumer and user groups said in comments. In July, the EC launched a consultation on a report -- by its High Level Group (HLG) on DRM -- on whether European Union (EU)-wide policies were needed to boost DRM deployment (WID July 19 p1).
Representatives from 2 countries whose direct-dial calls to Ireland will be blocked beginning next Mon. are heading to Dublin this week for talks with the Irish telecom regulator, Communications Regulation (ComReg). The heads of missions of the Cook Islands and the Solomon Islands to the European Communities -- 2 of the 13 nations whose calls will be barred in an effort to cut down on autodialing scams that have cost Irish citizens thousands of euros in unauthorized premium-rate calls -- aren’t happy about ComReg’s decision. Solomon Islands Ambassador Robert Sisilo said his “gut feeling” is that ComReg’s blocking order to ISPs and telcos (CD Sept 23 p14) isn’t legal, and he’s consulting his govt. on it. Cook Islands Ambassador Todd McClay reportedly called the decision “excessive” and said he had been advised ComReg may have been out of bounds in adopting it. Sisilo said he would likely propose some alternatives for dealing with the situation, possibly including: (1) Requiring carriers of the unauthorized autodialed calls to reimburse Irish consumers. (2) Considering selective blocking of numbers. Last Fri., ComReg issued a statement countering what it said were “incomplete media reports” that communications between the 13 countries and Ireland will cease entirely next week. Before Oct. 4, a “white list” of legitimate numbers will be compiled, the regulator said. All numbers on the list as of next Mon. will remain unblocked, and bona fide numbers listed after that day will be unblocked once customers ask their telcos to do so, ComReg said. “The white list is a crucial part of the story,” a ComReg spokesman told us. It was included in the public consultation on the proposed decision, he said, and all interested parties had the opportunity to comment on it. Moreover, he said, ComReg has acknowledged all along the blocking would cause temporary inconvenience, but it’s needed to stop rogue autodialers. ComReg is expecting the 2 ambassadors to bring their respective white lists with them to Thurs.’s meeting, the spokesman said, but is happy to discuss their other concerns as well.
European Union (EU) competition ministers Fri. kicked back for further negotiation a proposed regulation some telcos say unfairly discriminates against them. The provision at issue, Article 5a, was floated by the Dutch presidency this month as part of several amendments to a 2001 regulation on sales promotions in the internal market. The regulation aims to remove barriers to the use and commercial communication of sales promotions within the internal market by harmonizing provisions such as what information promoters must give consumers about their offers, an EU official said; it also lets promoters follow their domestic law when running cross-border promotions. But telcos said last week Art. 5a could harm their industry and should be clarified and put out for public comment.
Ireland’s telecom regulator earlier this week ordered ISPs and telcos to block direct calls from 13 countries where autodialing scams are bilking Irish consumers out of thousands of euro. The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) said it has received many complaints about rogue autodialer programs and modem hijacking that change Internet dialup settings to international numbers. In extreme cases, a spokesman said, small businesses were hit with phone bills of 10,000 and 18,000 euro. The blocking begins Oct. 4. ISPs have also been directed to alert users to the problem of autodialers, ComReg said. Most of the countries are in the South Pacific. ComReg may be the first national regulatory authority to take such an action, the spokesman told us, though several Canadian telcos and British Telecom have voluntarily decided to block some premium rate numbers. The regime -- which will run 6 months -- is “exceptional and unusual,” the spokesman said, but given the scale of the problem, and the failure of a public awareness campaign to stop the scams, it’s necessary. The blocking doesn’t mean the “Cook Islands [a country targeted] will be cut off from Ireland,” he said. ComReg will now create a “white list” of legitimate numbers that, once confirmed, will be able to be called, the spokesman said. ComReg has received more than 350 complaints this year, he said, and its action was prompted by both public and political concerns. In addition to the Cook Islands, the countries involved are Norfolk Island, Sao Tome and Principe, Tokelau, Diego Garcia, Wallis and Futuna, Nauru, Tuvalu, Comoros, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Mauritania, and French Polynesia.
European telcos and ISPs last week joined civil liberties advocates in denouncing a proposal by France, the U.K., Sweden and Ireland that communications services providers (CSPs) be required to hold Internet and telephone traffic data up to 36 months to assist law enforcement agencies. In comments submitted to the European Commission’s (EC’s) Information Society and Justice & Home Affairs Directorates, industry groups said the EC hasn’t justified imposing the heavy burden of data retention. They urged the EC to consider instead data preservation, which would allow CSPs to collect only data needed for specific law enforcement cases. The movie industry, however, said data retention was needed in the fight against piracy.