Payments across borders and those made by mobile users to other individuals offer banks the best chance to attract those who haven’t used the institutions to new kinds of services, ABI Research analyst Mark Beccue said. Nearly 3 billion people in developing countries don’t use banks, and access by mobile phones is the solution, he said during a webinar last week. Though policy makers are supportive in general, regulatory questions about mobile banking remain unanswered, said Timothy Lyman, a senior policy adviser to the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, a policy group.
The election of a German legislator to head the powerful European Parliament Industry Committee seems to have split Europe’s information and communication technology and e- communications industries. Telecom companies and ISPs fear that the chairman, Herbert Reul of the European People’s Party/Christian Democrats, will favor incumbent Deutsche Telekom, according to an ISP industry source. But DigitalEurope, the voice of the ICT industries, praised Reul’s experience in energy, climate-change and media issues, saying he'll understand technology opportunities.
Europe needs a “bold strategy” to encourage private investment in high-speed fiber networks, the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association said on Wednesday. The most recent data show Europe way behind the U.S. and Asia in high-speed broadband deployment, putting it at risk from the economic crisis, ETNO said. Fifty-eight percent of fiber networks are deployed by municipalities and power utility companies, while well-established industry players are balking at the large-scale investment needed for next-generation access networks, it said. Consumer uptake of high-speed connections is also slow, adding to investor uncertainty, it said. ETNO wants regulators to target intervention to competition bottlenecks in specific places, offer risk-sharing options to network builders and competitors seeking access and allow operators pricing flexibility. Meanwhile, French telecommunications regulator ARCEP said buildout of high-speed digital networks is a “major challenge” for his country. Momentum in the broadband market and the willingness of several operators to invest in fiber-to-the-home local loops is creating a unique environment in Europe that is particularly favorable to nationwide ultra-broadband rollouts, ARCEP said. Oversight of ultra-fast broadband requires regulation of France Telecom’s ducts and the last segment of the fiber network, it said. To jumpstart a coordinated approach, investments are needed quickly in very densely populated areas, it said. The regulator proposed making an exception to national law to allow network shared-access points on private property in buildings connected to “visitable sewers” and those with 12 or more units. To ensure a technologically neutral approach, ARCEP suggested allowing an operator to ask building operators to install additional dedicated fiber on its behalf for each unit in exchange for partial financing, and giving operators the option of having cross-connection equipment installed on their behalf at the shared access point. Comments are due July 22 - thd@arcep.fr. The decision is expected to take effect in the fall, ARCEP said.
Efforts by music labels to force Irish ISPs to adopt a “three-strikes” response to Internet piracy are meeting resistance from at least one of the operators. Universal Music Ireland Ltd., EMI Music Ireland, Sony and Warner Music Ireland Ltd. lodged summonses against UPC and British Telecom late last week, SiliconRepublic.com reported. The action follows a recent out-of-court settlement in which leading ISP Eircom agreed to the system, which could ultimately lead to disconnection of Internet access for subscribers involved in illegal file-swapping, UPC said. The recording industry then wrote to all other Irish ISPs seeking the same policy, it said. But UPC has said clearly from the outset that it won’t agree to a request that exceeds existing law, the ISP said. Irish law doesn’t require ISPs to control, access or block the Internet content its users download, it said, and the proposal gives rise to serious data privacy and consumer contract law concerns. Irish and EU laws maintain a careful balance between the rights and obligations of copyright owners, Internet users and ISPs, and the arrangement agreed to by Eircom “seriously undermines that balance,” it said. UPC takes all legally required steps to combat specific infringements brought to its attention, and will continue to work with rightsholders with appropriate court orders, it said. But if the labels start proceedings, “UPC intends to vigorously defend its position,” it said. UPC recommended that content owners convene a forum to address their concerns, but said all relevant parties - ISPs, labels, data protection and consumer watchdogs, and applicable government departments -- must be at the table. BT said it’s aware of the proceedings but hasn’t yet received the papers and isn’t in a position to comment on the grounds of the complaint.
A divisive proposal to ease restrictions on cross- ownership of domain-name registries and registrars is up for debate this week at the ICANN meeting in Sydney. The plan -- included in a draft applicant guidebook for those seeking new top-level domains - would relax the strict registry- registrar separation imposed because of antitrust concerns arising from ties between .com registry VeriSign and its formerly wholly-owned registrar, Network Solutions. Major registries oppose the move, saying it will hurt the domain market and consumers. Registrars and smaller registries call the objections absurd.
The Internet should continue to be run by the private sector but within clear guidelines defined through international dialogue, the European Commission said in a statement Thursday to the European Parliament and Council of Ministers on the next steps in Internet governance. The Net has become a critical resource and many Europeans now expect governments to ensure its reliability, the EC said. The constituency model used by the Internet Governance Forum and others has contributed to the Internet’s success, but the Net’s increasing importance to society as a whole means governments must be more involved in key decisions, it said. Moreover, public attitudes toward self-regulation have changed in the wake of the financial crisis, and, where critical resources are concerned, people have a “higher and understandable expectation” that governments be assertive to defend the public interest, it said. Maintaining a back-seat approach to Internet governance isn’t an option, but that doesn’t mean governments should have a stronger role in managing or controlling the day-to-day operations of the Internet, it said. The EU’s policy approach to Internet governance stresses the need for security and stability of the global Internet, respect for human rights and freedoms and promotion of cultural and language diversity, it said. Other key principles include respect for the open, interoperable and end-to-end nature of the Net and the need for private bodies responsible for coordinating global Internet resources to be accountable, it said. Indications are that ICANN’s joint project agreement with the NTIA will end in September, but that the U.S. intends to retain control over key addressing and naming functions, meaning the problem of “unilateral oversight” of those resources will remain, the EC said. ICANN has been successful in several areas, including keeping the domain name system stable and creating a multistakeholder forum for inclusive policy-making, but its Governmental Advisory Committee remains far from representative, it said. ICANN must be accountable not only internally to those who take part in its constituencies but also externally to the world Internet community, the EC said. The only external accountability ICANN has now is to the U.S. government, it said. The stability and management of the root zone file is of crucial importance to all countries, but there’s no consensus on whether to create a new intergovernmental body to exercise oversight or how to delegate those responsibilities to some existing organization, it said. One option would be to make ICANN externally accountable so each country can take on whatever responsibilities should properly be addressed at that level, it said. ICANN’s legal structure under California law is another problem because it raises conflicts of applicable law and jurisdictions, the EC said. There are still legitimate worries about whether a governmental committee advising a private corporation is an effective way for governments to deal with their public policy duties, and ICANN’s self-regulatory approach means that incumbent operators may inappropriately block new players from the market, it said. It proposed that the EU engage in international talks on how to boost intergovernmental dialogue and cooperation on public policy-making, starting with the need to retain private-sector leadership in the daily running of the Internet. ICANN needs internal reform to ensure full accountability and openness, and current oversight arrangements for ICANN and the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority should be replaced with a system ensuring that ICANN has “multilateral accountability,” the EC said. This should be part of an evolutionary approach to let governments exercise their responsibilities, it said. It also urged the EU to start talks with U.S. government on an arrangement for IANA oversight that respects U.S. national priorities while reflecting the legitimate expectations and interests of the international community. The statement seems to propose a step backward toward a more traditional intergovernmental process instead of a transnational, multi-stakeholder process involving the public sector, civil society and private sectors as peers, said Milton Mueller, Syracuse University School of Information Studies professor and XS4All professor at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. While its analysis of U.S. unilateralism and ICANN is often valid, the EC makes no concrete proposals to move the debate forward except that the EU and U.S. should negotiate, he told us. If the EU wants a stronger role in shaping Internet governance, it will have to rely more on the quality of its analysis and the creativity of its reform proposals and less on claims that it has “special authority by virtue of the fact that it is composed of governments,” he said. The reason governments have been left behind in many Internet governance issues is that they don’t keep up with the “intimate intersection of technology and policy” and have nothing constructive to propose, Mueller said. The Internet Governance Project, of whose scientific committee Mueller is a member, and other civil society groups are increasingly concerned about the tendency of large government players to “go behind closed doors” to negotiate a solution in the name of the public interest while excluding the most informed and involved members of the public, he said.
BRUSSELS -- European spectrum management reform, badly needed for universal broadband and economic recovery, is being held hostage in a stand-off between governments and the European Parliament over Internet cutoffs without court orders, speakers said Tuesday at a spectrum management conference. Although the three EU lawmakers who led Parliament’s work on the telecom package will be back in the next legislature, as current Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding may be, final agreement on the telecom package isn’t certain, they said. All eyes are on the incoming Swedish presidency to seal the deal.
With the digital TV switchover scheduled for Africa by 2015, not much seems to be happening except in South Africa, officials said. There, broadcasters seeking to launch DTV on the back of next year’s World Cup soccer games are trialing one free and one subscription service despite several unresolved regulatory and policy issues, said Lynn Mansfield, chairman of the South African Digital Broadcasting Association. Elsewhere, most countries haven’t begun to think about switchover strategy, said Alan Downie, a consultant with the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association, which mainly includes public broadcasters.
Change is coming to the European Parliament and Commission this year but some important telecom matters will carry over, said officials from the EU bodies, industry and consumer groups. With European elections June 4-7 and a new EC expected to be seated by early next year, completing an overhaul of e-communications rules is the highest priority, telecom groups said. Broadband rollout, digital content and Internet access are also on the agenda, they said.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development will propose a new indicator for measuring mobile wireless broadband connections, an economist for the group said Wednesday. If approved by member countries, there will be separate indicators for wireless and wired broadband connectivity, economist Taylor Reynolds said. The group’s broadband rankings, which typically rank the U.S. in the teens, have been controversial.