EU lawmakers must push through a final telecom...

will include plans to end mobile roaming charges in Europe and, for the first time, guarantee net neutrality. The “open and neutral character of the Internet is carved in stone” for Kroes, she said. She asked committee members if they would join her “in building something special between now and the European elections” next year. “I want us to show citizens that the EU is relevant to their lives” and that it made digital rules catch up with their legitimate expectations, she said. She promised to spend the next year building a bridge with Parliament to European citizens, saying they “need this reform.” Everyone loves the benefits of cheaper roaming prices, which couldn’t have happened without the EU, she said. That fact is also a challenge, she said. While her mandate is the source of the “incredibly popular” policy, “we struggle to push other telecoms and digital issues to the top of the political agenda,” she said. Kroes called for a “radical legislative compromise” that puts in place all the pieces in the puzzle, not just everyone’s personal favorites or the “visible and sexy changes.” Kroes said she’s passionate about reform because it’s useless for her to rock the boat on her own, and because although there’s support from the highest levels in the EU institutions to move forward, she can’t do it without Parliament. All the political building blocks are there, she said. Citizens want their frustrations dealt with; more companies will invest if artificial barriers drop; and national governments are telling the European Commission to proceed, Kroes said. “This is the opportunity to stand up and be counted.” IMCO members flagged several issues they'd like to see tackled, such as ensuring that libraries have access to e-books and creating a system for online dispute resolution. European telecom network operators, meanwhile, said this week that a full revision of the regulatory framework must be an integral part of the digital single market initiative. When the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association met in Milan Tuesday, the association said the objective of reform should be to spur growth, innovation and employment and to guarantee that citizens continue to enjoy the benefits of technological progress. That can only happen if investment in the ICT sector increases, ETNO said. Investment lags in Europe because of fragmented markets and an “unpredictable and non-harmonised regulatory environment, which still favours access seekers over investors, focuses mainly on the number of players in the markets as an indicator for competition and places too little attention to a sustainable market structure,” ETNO said in a written statement Thursday (http://xrl.us/bo6mb7). Less-intrusive regulation will stimulate investment, it said. The telecom industry must “evolve or die,” and 2013 is the tipping year, said European Internet think tank IDATE on Thursday in the 2012 edition of its DigiWorld Yearbook (http://xrl.us/bo6mdi). The digital world had a 2.7 percent revenue drop last year, after two steady years of recovery, it said. Equipment markets were battered and the TV market was the hardest hit, dragging the entire consumer electronics market down 7 percent, it said. But more competition in the smartphone and tablet markets offers a glimmer of hope for the other two sectors, it said. Services markets appear to have weathered the storm but likely won’t ever go back to the high growth rates of the 1990s and mid-2000s, it said. The only exception is Internet over-the-top services, which continue to grow by an average 20 percent per year, said IDATE. Telecom companies have some leverage to deal with the change, such as by creating more value from network access now that OTT services are raising user consumption, it said. Next-generation network technologies let telcos boost speeds and introduce quality improvements to differentiate their offerings, said IDATE. “It is clear 2013 is a pivotal year and telcos must embrace innovation. A simple Darwinian case of evolve or die!” Digital innovation is far from over, and is being pushed by mobile, cloud computing and big data, IDATE said.