The EU/U.S. tug-of-war over data protection is hurting transatlantic commerce, the American Chamber of Commerce Germany (AmCham) said. Whether they're active in consumer protection, Internet or electronic commerce, companies all over face variances on protection of personal data, it said. No soon did the U.S. and EU settle a dispute over airline passenger name record data than Germany’s Interior Minister demanded the EU collect what the U.S. does, it said. More enterprises in Europe doing business in the U.S. hang on the horns of the same dilemma; they must transfer a multitude of data to the U.S. whose circulation German or EU rules ban, AmCham said. Germany’s economy needs a reliable framework for transatlantic business that doesn’t hamper Germany’s economic relationship with the U.S., AmCham said. U.S. officials will be asking for more, not less data, predicted German telecommunications lawyer Axel Spies. Germany works closely with the U.S. on all levels to fight terror; if its proposed law on mandatory storage of communications traffic data takes effect, the U.S. will tap into that pool as well, he said. Besides terror-related requests, the U.S. seeks data from Europe in other areas, such as addressed by the Securities and Exchange Commission under Sarbanes-Oxley and by the Federal Trade Commission in antitrust, he said. International litigation is “another field of contention” on which electronic discovery requests from the U.S. may clash with EU data protection law, Spies said.
More studies are needed on whether mobile applications can exist in the UHF band, the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) said of its decision to recommend delay until 2011 of allocation of spectrum in the 470-862 MHz frequency. CEPT’s stance, which is the European Common Proposal for the upcoming World Radio Conference (WRC-07), conflicts with that of the European Commission. It angers the mobile sector, which fears that Europe will lose out if spectrum isn’t freed for innovative new services.
EU broadband penetration now matches that of the U.S. and Japan, the European Competitive Telecommunications Association will report Friday. The figures reflect the penetration rate of 15 EU countries combined, which presents a different picture from an OECD country-by-country comparison that showed the U.S. dropped from 12 to 15 (CD April 24 p1) in 2006. The record rate has resulted from competition by new players using local loop unbundling, cable and alternative technologies, the association said in its twice yearly broadband scorecard. But, it warned, a chronic lag in enforcing unbundling means “success stories are still in the minority.”
New logos aim to end consumer confusion over the latest HD-ready TVs and devices, the European Information, Communications and Consumer Electronics Technology Industry Associations (EICTA) said. The “HD ready 1080p” and “HD TV 1080p” labels, in use as of Thursday, go on gear meeting its standards for receiving, processing and displaying HD 1080p video signals that are becoming available, they said. But despite HD-ready products’ proliferation, Europe’s HDTV market lags behind North America’s for lack of programming and investment, analysts said.
Proposals to revamp EU e-communications rules are undergoing final review in the European Commission, a spokesman for Information Society & Media Commissioner Viviane Reding said Monday. The legislative recommendations and an impact assessment are in the last phase of internal commission deliberations, he said. The package includes the creation of an EU super-regulator dubbed the European Electronic Communications Market Authority, French newspaper Les Echos reported. Under the proposal, if the commission decides that a national regulator isn’t acting correctly to boost competition in a particular market, it can direct the EECMA to set out the appropriate remedies. The agency -- whose decisions will be made by majority vote of the 27 national telecommunications regulators -- couldn’t directly impose the remedies, Les Echos said. That would require commission approval. The package also includes a directive aimed at improving the function of the European market by simplifying regulation and optimizing distribution of radio spectrum, it said. It allows functional separation between operators and their networks, akin to the split by British Telecom between its infrastructure and services arms. The package also reportedly narrows the number of markets national regulators must analyze for competition problems from 18 to eight. Reding’s spokesman called the report “quite accurate.” Adoption of the recommendations is set for the end of October or the first week in November, he said. Some member countries are hostile to the idea of an EU “FCC” and are expected to try to torpedo it, Les Echos said.
A European Commission plan for a one-stop shop for mobile satellite service licenses is good news for Europe’s satellite industry but may not matter much, Phil Kendall, Strategy Analytics’ global wireless practice director, said Wednesday. Under the proposal, which aims to boost high speed data communications, the EC, with member nations, would pick licensees to operate in the 2 GHz band across Europe. But mobile phones’ predominance and the European satellite sector’s woes, make the plan’s success iffy, Kendall said.
Fears of “blanket surveillance” of European citizens rose with Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act revisions expanding warrantless wiretaps of communications over U.S.- based networks between people in the U.S. and abroad, Dutch European Parliament member Sophie In’t Veld said Monday. The U.S. move is the latest in a series of infringements on Europeans’ privacy rights, she said in an interview. It also could spell trouble for electronic communications and ISPs caught between U.S. snooping and EU data protection laws, Brussels privacy attorney Wim Nauwelaerts said.
British Telecom denied it’s among U.K. Internet service providers seeking to force the BBC to pay extra for bandwidth needed by its new iPlayer service (CD Aug 14 p13). BT Retail continually monitors Internet traffic to deliver the best possible service to broadband customers, a spokesman said. BT will take into account the iPlayer -- allowing viewers to stream BBC programs after they air -- and other video download services in decisions on bandwidth and quality of service moving forward, he said Tuesday. “We're not clubbing together with other ISPs to complain to the BBC,” the spokesman told us.
Several major U.K. broadband providers have warned the BBC to contribute to the costs of streaming its TV programs over their networks or they will “pull the plug,” British media reported. Tiscali, Carphone Warehouse, and BT are among Internet service providers (ISPs) said to fret over how much bandwidth the BBC’s new iPlayer could tie up. The service lets viewers watch TV shows online on a seven-day catch-up basis, The Independent on Sunday said. The ISPs reportedly told BBC that they will consider traffic-shaping to ration iPlayer access. Internet players by Channel 4 and ITV could gobble more bandwidth, The Independent said. The Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA), reportedly has been asked to speak for industry on this issue, has no official position, its spokesman told us. But in ISPA’s January bi-annual newsletter, devoted to the issue of net neutrality, ISPA Council Chairman Jessica Hendrie-Llano said ISPs are looking at options for maintaining service quality in high bandwidth use situations, including prioritization of traffic or charging content providers for network access. But, she said, contracts between ISPs and content providers raise concerns about whether access to information will be constrained by financial relationships. The industry code of practice now advises ISPs not to block or filter any service to customers unless they get clear explanations for the action, Hendrie-Llano wrote. The European Commission is considering net neutrality in a review of the electronic communications regulatory framework. With Europe’s tendency to “to take a back seat” in the net neutrality debate, the BBC scenario or something like it was needed to bring it to the top of the Commission agenda, said StrategyAnalytics digital consumer practice analyst David Mercer, asking rhetorically ISPs plan on charging. If it’s to be end-users, ISPs will have to act uniformly or wind up with some providers competing with lower prices or even free services, rendering the exercise moot, he said. And such activity is likely to invite antitrust probes, he said. And charging content providers, moreover, likely will “stir up a hornet’s nest” of discord over access rights and neutrality issues bound to land in court, Mercer said. The “balance of power lies with net neutrality now,” he said: ISPs will have trouble making prioritization stick. One way or the other, he added, “the legal profession will do well out of any dispute.”
Broadcasters should have to give Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) and mobile operators access to their content, the German Competitive Carriers Association (VATM) said Thursday. The convergence of TV, Internet and telephony requires a radical change in media policy to ensure that TV broadcasters do not dictate prices for content new services bring to end- users, attorney Axel Spies said on behalf of the group. The VATM statement came in a hearing on proposed German Broadcasting Convention changes. In Germany, states, not the federal government, control broadcast issues, Spies said. States coordinate via the broadcast treaty; large public TV stations are financed by a broadcast tax, he said. VATM members fear their innovative services will be denied market entry because so far, state broadcast agencies have done nothing to keep cable and satellite broadcasters from raising prices for content, making alternative platforms very costly, Spies said. Public and private broadcasters are already active in the IPTV market and control the prices for new content, he said. Instead of outdated “must carry” rules for IPTV and mobile services platform operators, he said, broadcasters should come under “must offer” rules. Viewers should pick the conduit on which receive TV content, Spies said. The VATM wants the broadcast treaty amended to give IPTV and mobile operators non-discriminatory access to content, he said.