Ireland’s challenge to an EU law requiring retention of Internet and telecommunications traffic data was set for a Tuesday hearing in the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The court likely will annul the directive, finding the European Commission (EC) lacks standing to legislate on processing of personal data, including Internet and telephony traffic data, in the context of public safety and law enforcement, said Ralf Bendrath. A political scientist and privacy policy researcher at Technical University Delft in the Netherlands who serves on the German Working Group on Data Retention, Bendrath hopes the court also weighs privacy and freedom of expression concerns cited in an April brief by 43 civil rights groups, he said. His working group expects the Irish challenge to the measure’s legal basis to kill it, he said. If the ECJ tosses the directive, the EC will be “out of the game,” since it only can only draft legislation for the internal market, Bendrath told us. The Council of Ministers -- EU governments -- theoretically could revive the attempt, but all member countries would have to approve it, he said. The resulting instrument, a framework decision, would be less binding than a directive, a 2005 version of which EU states failed to agree on, he said. “We expect that the EuCtJ will end this forum shopping and policy-laundering,” he said. Since the directive was passed, opposition to data storage and increased surveillance has grown, making consensus in the Council even more elusive, he said. The German Federal Constitutional Court has indicated it will “comprehensively examine” that country’s data retention laws’ compatibility with fundamental German rights, the working group said. “On that basis we are confident that we will win our class action against the permanent blanket registration of our communications behaviour and movements.”
BRUSSELS -- European interest is rising in collective use of spectrum (CUS) for new wireless applications, speakers said Thursday at a European spectrum management conference. CUS is seen increasingly by regulators and major industry players as a way to spark innovation while lowering entry barriers, they said. But the approach remains controversial and faces regulatory challenges and push-back by incumbents.
BRUSSELS -- With interest in fiber network rollout on the upswing, the European Commission (EC) will this summer propose a plan to boost investment in broadband, officials said Wednesday. It will come in the form of guiding principles for next-generation access (NGA) regulation for the next five years, Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding said at a European Competitive Telecommunications Association workshop on policies and strategies to boost fiber penetration. But despite consensus on the need for fiber infrastructure, many questions about its financial viability remain, speakers said.
The U.K. is a market leader in digital radio but barriers to its growth remain, the Digital Radio Working Group (DRWG) said Monday. The government-established panel issued an interim report on what conditions must be met to make digital radio the predominant means of delivering radio, what problems are hampering its rollout, and what can be done about them. Audience research shows that as of the first quarter of 2008, digital listening accounted for nearly 18 percent of all radio listening, with digital audio broadcasting (DAB) the most popular format, the DRWG said. Britons own more than seven million DAB radios, a figure predicted to jump to nine million by the end of the year, it said. Moreover, despite the downturn in consumer confidence, DAB device sales outperformed the rest of the consumer electronics market over the past year, it said. But barriers to growth exist. Analog broadcasters carrying radio across several platforms are facing higher costs with little or no financial benefits in return, the DRWG said. There are coverage gaps and signal problems which must be resolved if DAB is ever to be viewed as a replacement for analog radio. There’s some harmonization of digital radio taking place at the EU level, but some countries are adopting different variants of the Eureka 147 family, of which DAB is only one. Moreover, the lack of European harmonization, plus coverage problems, are preventing auto makers from choosing digital radios as standard equipment, the DRWG said. There’s currently no obvious digital migration path for all radio because of the amount of spectrum available and the cost of digital broadcasting, it said. While radio over the Internet, satellite and mobile networks have an important role to play, DAB is now the most practical replacement for analog, the group said, because the U.K. already has a well- developed DAB market, it’s currently the most appropriate digital means of delivering portable reception, it’s free, and it gives industry the chance to determine its own future. The DRWG proposed that DAB become the primary platform for all national, regional and large local services, but that community radio and smaller local services remain FM analog for now. It called for a coordinated policy between the radio industry and manufacturers to ensure that all future radios can receive analog, DAB and other variants of the Eureka 147 family. To ease digital migration, the panel recommended that: (1) Broadcasters agree on a unified promotional strategy to sell the benefits of digital radio to listeners. (2) The Office of Communications (Ofcom) and the government make clear their intention to create a digital radio future. (3) No switchover date be set now, but the government clarify to the industry and consumers the circumstances in which migration will begin. Key criteria should be the level of total listening to DAB-enabled devices, and current and planned coverage of DAB and FM. (4) The government consider the uptake of digital radio in cars. (5) Migration be completed by 2020. Culture Secretary Margaret Hodge agreed radio must move to digital to remain relevant, but said several issues must be resolved before a decision can be reached, particularly the impact of digital migration on consumers. The Digital Radio Development Bureau, which seeks to ensure the widespread and quick adoption of DAB digital radio via “consistent and effective marketing,” said the report sets a clear path toward an “agreed vision for the future.” The final report is due later this year. DRWG members include the BBC, Ofcom, the government, commercial radio stations, consumer groups, and representatives from car makers and sellers.
EU telecom ministers seem to have quashed European Commission (EC) plans for a new e-communications regulatory body. Meeting Thursday in Luxembourg, officials agreed that before setting the structure of a new institution they need to know more about what it will do, said Andrej Vizjak, economy minister of Slovenia, which holds the EU presidency now. The Telecommunications Council rejected an EC proposal to fold Europe’s network security watchdog into any new body, a reaction Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding said she won’t oppose.
The timetable appears to be slipping on European Parliament efforts to speed passage of European Commission plans to revamp telecom rules. Lawmakers introduced so many amendments to reports on proposed changes in Europe’s e- communications regulatory framework, access, interconnection and authorization rules, and the plan for a European Electronic Communications Market Authority, that debate in the Industry, Research and Energy Committee scheduled for Tuesday was postponed, its spokeswoman said. The Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee, considering EC changes to universal service and consumer protection rules, debated amendments as scheduled May 28. Both panels were then expected to vote on the amendments June 16, before July plenary action on the package. But about 850 amendments were offered in the industry committee, creating problems with the timetable, the committee spokeswoman said. “It is very probable that the committee vote will be postponed as well,” she said. There were many amendments in the internal market committee as well, its spokesman said. The decision to adopt all the amendments in both committees at the same time (June 16) will make it politically and technically difficult to vote on the legislative package in July, the internal market spokesman said. His committee still plans to vote on its report on June 16, but that action could be delayed as well, he said.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development broadband penetration data closely track those the European Commission (EC) cites, a spokesman for Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding said Thursday. OECD’s publication this week of its latest rankings has the U.S. in 15th place, with EU members Denmark and the Netherlands in the lead. The EC believes OECD subscriber and penetration numbers to be “a very useful tool” with which to compare broadband markets’ competitiveness using a common methodology, and largely track with a March EC report on its e-communications regulatory regime’s effectiveness, the spokesman said. The results varied slightly, he said. Finland, Portugal and Slovakia were ranked lower by the OECD, with Luxembourg and Ireland higher, perhaps due to slight differences in population data used to calculate average broadband penetration, data adjustments by national regulators or simply because the EC publishes data provided and confirmed by national regulators only, whereas the OECD combines information sourced from national authorities with its estimates, the spokesman said. The OECD method also differs slightly on broadband speed, the spokesman said. The EC defines broadband as connections with a transmission capacity equal to or over 144 kbps, while the OECD threshold is set 256 kbps, he said.
A broadband indicator being devised by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development for the first time will count wireless broadband users, analyst Taylor Reynolds said Wednesday. OECD members are having difficulty agreeing on a means of gauging mobile broadband use, but Reynolds told us he hopes the new system will be in place next year. The organization now assesses broadband markets using 5 criteria -- penetration, choice and competition, coverage, services and speeds, and price -- a system that has provoked outrage in the U.S., whose broadband penetration ranking continues to slip. This year the U.S. ranked 15th as of December 2007, the OECD said in a report earlier this week. Several years ago the U.S. and others urged the OECD to redo its broadband penetration analysis. The body has made no changes but has tried to allay misunderstandings about what its data mean, Reynolds said. The OECD counts subscribers based on the number of lines and connections, but there can be more than one user per connection, he said. The data are “fact-checked with the FCC” and member country counterparts, he said. The OECD publishes subscriber and user data but subscriber data is easier to get, he said. The entity’s new broadband portal posts all the information collected, which Reynolds said has eased criticism. The U.S. wanted the data “put in context” and not tied to a single indicator such as the number of subscribers per 100 population, Reynolds said. The OECD agreed, and believes its data now has more context, he said. It ranks nations to raise the question of why the top countries do well and how their experience can help those lower down, he said. Among the December report’s key findings: (1) Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Finland, Korea and Sweden have broadband penetration well above the OECD average of 30 subscribers per 100 inhabitants threshold. (2) The U.S. is the OECD’s largest broadband market, with nearly 70 million subscribers, representing 30 percent of all broadband connections among organization members. (3) Fiber-to-the-home and fiber-to- the-building connections continue to rise, comprising 8 percent of broadband connections in the OECD. Reynolds co- authored a report on broadband growth and policies in member countries published this week ahead of the organization’s June 17-18 ministerial meeting in Seoul, South Korea. The report found many positive market and policy developments, including subscriber growth, faster and cheaper connections and more availability of wireless and mobile Internet connections. The study found substantial divides in broadband access and use among OECD countries and between urban and rural areas, insufficient governmental use of broadband for e-health and e-government services and more broadband-related security threats. It urged governments to remove barriers to deploying broadband services and content; to do a better job of coordinating security, privacy and consumer protection activities; and to find an appropriate balance between content protection and distribution. The Technology Policy Institute called the OECD rankings “a flawed and misleading basis for policymaking.” The institute said the rankings don’t separate business from residential connections and don’t take into account that larger average households in the U.S. lead to lower per- capita penetration findings since the rankings are based on connections rather than users. “No evidence suggests a general policy failure” in the U.S. market, the institute said. Media reform organization Free Press, however, said the rankings show the U.S. lacks a coherent broadband strategy.
EU lawmakers began debate Tuesday on counter-proposals to European Commission plans to revamp electronic- communications regulations. Reports by the European Parliament Industry, Research and Energy Committee take up EC proposals to change access, interconnection and authorization rules and create a new regulatory body. MEPs are expected to introduce many amendments next week, said German Socialist MEP Erika Mann. Some probably will seek to quash EC plans to let national regulators force dominant providers to split their infrastructure and services arms, a remedy known as functional separation, said a committee spokeswoman.
EU lawmakers this week unveiled counter-proposals to European Commission (EC) plans to revamp electronic communications regulations. Reports by the European Parliament’s Industry, Research and Energy and Internal Market and Consumer Protection committees enjoy strong support among MEPs, their authors said at a Wednesday press briefing. The most potentially contentious issue will be “where to find the budget,” French Socialist MEP Catherine Trautmann said. The EC welcomed the proposals, complaining they didn’t go far enough on spectrum management reform.