Voting today (Wed.) on mandatory storage of phone and Internet traffic data, the European Parliament (EP) is badly split on the antiterror measure. Many who back the proposed directive, a compromise between the EP’s 2 largest political groups -- the Socialists and the European People’s Party -- and the Justice & Home Affairs (JHA) Council and European Commission (EC), admit it’s flawed but say it’s needed to fight serious crime. Many other MEPS decry it for failing to balance national security with human rights. Others rage at what they call a “back-door” compromise. The proposal is so disliked in some quarters that the Irish govt. is said to be prepared to challenge the directive in the European Court of Justice if, as expected, it’s adopted.
The European Commission (EC) unveiled its proposal for revamping TV regulation Tues. The TV Without Frontiers (TVWF) draft has sparked strong criticism from Europe’s telecom sector over its distinction between traditional scheduled TV services (linear) and on-demand (non-linear) services. Under the proposal, TV rules would be updated to account for technological changes and market developments such as new viewing habits. Ad and product placement rules would be updated. On-demand audiovisual (A/V) content would come under less oversight, focussing mainly on protecting children and minors and quashing incitement to hatred.
The fight against mandatory storage of Internet and phone traffic data isn’t lost but rejection has become “more than extremely difficult,” a key European Parliament (EP) foe of data retention told us Thurs. Last week, the Justice & Home Affairs Council approved amendments to a European Commission-proposed directive (CD Dec 5 p12) differing from those MEPs adopted weeks earlier. Ministers apparently got the heads of the EP’s 2 largest political groups to back the Council version, said Alexander Alvaro, author of a civil liberties panel report criticizing data retention. That backing means the measure likely will adopted in next week’s plenary session.
BRUSSELS -- The U.K. has chosen a “desperate solution” to the problem of assuring British Telecom (BT) rivals equal access to the incumbent’s networks, said France Telecom (FT) Exec. Vp-Regulatory Affairs Jacques Champeaux. Earlier this year, BT, facing an antitrust probe, vowed to provide what the U.K. telecom regulator calls “equivalence of access” to competitors. As part of that, the telco is creating a new entity assigned to ensure alternative providers are offered the same wholesale services and products as BT’s own retail arm. Speaking Fri. at the European Competitive Telecom Assn.’s regulatory conference here, however, Champeaux said in the long run structural separation isn’t practical.
BRUSSELS -- Legal challenges to national telecom competition rules pose a growing threat, regulators and industry representatives said Thurs. at the European Competitive Telecom Assn. (ECTA) annual regulatory conference here. As regulators analyze 18 markets under the new e-communications regulatory framework (NRF) and impose remedies on dominant players, many orders are being appealed by incumbents and new entrants alike. Widely varying decision times across the European Union (EU) -- and differing judicial approaches -- are leaving competition questions unresolved and investments delayed. The situation has become so troublesome the European Commission (EC) has been asked to intervene.
BRUSSELS -- European telecom has a “stark choice” -- regulation or stagnation, the European Competitive Telecom Assn. (ECTA) said Thurs. Investment suffers when regulators don’t tackle dominant firms, while nations that open markets to competition have “stormed ahead,” ECTA said at its 6th annual regulatory conference here. Its 2005 regulatory scorecard’s findings reinforce calls to spurn the sort of “regulatory holiday” on fiber Germans are debating.
Opponents of extending broadcasting copyright protections to webcasting complained Wed. of being presented “three doors that all lead to the same room” by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). WIPO’s Standing Committee on Copyright & Related Rights (SCCR) met this week to discuss the latest draft of an updated broadcasting treaty and alternative proposals for voluntary responses to piracy of webcasts. Civil liberties groups questioned why countries are being denied the “one option that has received the most support” -- excluding webcasting from the treaty. In the end, however, both they and a WIPO official said, the meeting had been productive.
LONDON -- Launch of the first set of standards for next generation networks (NGNs) shows the ITU can act efficiently and at low cost, the dir. of ITU’s telecom standardization bureau said Fri. The specifications were drawn up so quickly ITU no longer can be seen as slow, Houlin Zhao said. But, fearing industry will continue to refuse to work with the organization, Houlin pleaded for the telecom sector to “start with the ITU” on standardization. His comments came at an ITU-sponsored NGN conference here.
Telecom regulators expect to play a key role in a 2006 review of Europe’s new e-communications regulatory framework (NRF), the European Regulators Group’s (ERG’s) incoming head said in an interview. Kip Meek, chief policy partner at the U.K. Office of Communications (Ofcom), vowed as ERG chmn. to keep an “overwhelming focus” on substantive issues related to the review. A particular matter Meek wants to pursue is the amount of harmonization appropriate in national methods for deciding when to regulate a given market (CD Nov 14 p6).
EDINBURGH, Scotland -- A coming review of a European Commission (EC) e-communications regulatory package was a highlight of an Office of Communications (Ofcom) conference on next-generation networks here Thurs.-Fri. Review of the new regulatory framework (NRF) likely will focus on spectrum trading and streamlining means of analyzing telecom market competition, Fabio Colasanti, dir.-gen. of the Information Society & Media Directorate- Gen., said. Others want a broader approach, including a study of how truly desirable harmonized regulation is.