Few European firms build privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) into their data technology infrastructures, although data protection law encourages it, officials said. “The state of deployment of most privacy-enhancing technologies is not brilliant,” George Danezis, a fellow in computer security and industrial cryptography at the Katholieke U. Leuven, Netherlands, said: “I'm struggling to think of a company… that is really rolling them out.” In fact, he said, far from designing such elements into their networks, many communications companies opt to install surveillance capabilities or crippled security systems.
Dugie Standeford
Dugie Standeford, European Correspondent, Communications Daily and Privacy Daily, is a former lawyer. She joined Warren Communications News in 2000 to report on internet policy and regulation. In 2003 she moved to the U.K. and since then has covered European telecommunications issues. She previously covered the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and intellectual property law matters. She has a degree in psychology from Duke University and a law degree from the University of Tulsa College of Law.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) Tues. voided a pact demanding that European nations give U.S. Customs airline passengers’ phone number, credit card and other data within 15 min. of departure for the U.S. The move may have broad implications for privacy rights and data transfers in other contexts, including communications traffic data retention, experts said.
Germany’s Parliament votes June 2 on whether the govt. should contest EU legislation requiring storage of Internet and telecom traffic data, European Digital Rights (EDRi) reported. The draft resolution would ask the German govt. to fight a data retention measure that took effect May 3. The challenge to the directive would come in the European Court of Justice, and would seek to delay its adoption it into national law until the court rules, EDRi said. The proposal has backing from individual members in all parties, it said. But Axel Spies -- a Washington lawyer who represents the German Competitive Carriers Assn. (VATM) - said passage is far from assured.
Voice services, overlooked in the rush to broadband, WiMAX, WiFi and other new technologies, will remain the “goose that laid the golden egg” for the rest of the century, Ovum Telecom Strategy Research head Mike Cansfield said Tues. Although the best days of telecom are over, he said, voice lines and usage continue to grow. Revenue is beginning to slide, but voice will still represent 2/3 of all telephony revenue by 2015. To say “voice is dead is nonsense,” Cansfield said in an interview following the release of Ovum’s report on Voice: A Vision of the Future.
The EU needs tougher data protection if member nations aim to share communications traffic data with U.S. police agencies, European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) Peter Hustinx said Fri. His comment followed a May 12 report that the U.S. wants bilateral pacts with EU nations giving it access to Internet and telephone traffic data held under a new EU data retention directive. That talks on this are underway isn’t surprising, given blurring of cross-border physical and data transfer barriers, observers said.
Deutsche Telekom’s (DT’s) push for a regulatory moratorium for its new high speed network appears to be spilling into other EU countries, telecom lawyer Axel Spies said Wed. France Telecom (FT) was reported Tues. to be pressing the European Commission to phase out current telecom regulations by 2012, limit regulation of fixed-line wholesale markets and revamp wholesale regulation of mobile markets to favor network operators rather than virtual operators. It’s unclear whether FT’s call came in a new document or the reports were referring to comments filed in Jan. in the Commission’s review of the EU’s new regulatory framework. There, FT said Europe “should take the risk of deregulation if it really believes in competition and wants to keep pace with modern economies.” It proposed that: (1) Regulation be ratcheted down 2006-2008 and retail markets be removed from the list of markets national regulators must analyze for competition problems. The Commission should also clarify that “emerging markets and the access to associated infrastructure will not be regulated.” (2) Obligations of the amended regulatory framework with regard to legacy infrastructures be gradually withdrawn 2009-2012, leading to complete deregulation eventually. (3) By 2012-2105, a new regulatory framework should have ended all sector-specific regulation, leaving the scope of EU telecom regulation limited to management of scarce resources such as spectrum, authorizations and rights of way. European incumbents “are pulling on the same rope -- with DT being the largest and most active force battling for immediate regulatory holidays,” Spies said. Incumbents want to get rid of regulation on the ground that it hampers new investment, he said, but that’s not true. Competitive telcos have spent and will spend a lot of money upgrading their networks and technologies to give consumers a choice. But legacy networks were built when the incumbents were monopolies and govts. owned large chunks of their shares, Spies said. Competitors need access to those networks at regulated rates that balance the playing field or competition won’t survive, he said. The fact that unbundling has become such a success story in France recently is due to pressure from the country’s telecom regulator, he added. DT, which is building a new VDSL network, wants a regulatory moratorium in exchange for its multibillion-euro investment. Legislation amending Germany’s telecom act to grant DT’s wish is pending. The Commission opposes the idea, but pressure remains on it to approve the regime, Spies said.
Industry self-regulation or an EU cap on wholesale mobile roaming charges will not cut Europe’s high roaming prices, a European Commission (EC) spokesman said Thurs. At a “mini-hearing” on mobile roaming’s economic implications -- held by the European Parliament’s Industry, Research & Energy and Internal Market & Consumer Protection committees -- operators sought time to cut rates. Later a spokesman for Information Society & Media Comr. Viviane Reding said the EC has pushed operators to cut prices for “many, many years” to no avail. But direct EC controls on wholesale roaming fees is “too much intervention,” given Europe’s range of services and prices, he said. The suggestion is “too simple to do justice to this very complex market,” he said. On April 3, the EC began phase 2 of an inquiry into roaming charges, proposing: (1) Abolishing retail charges on travelers getting calls while abroad. (2) Pegging retail roaming tariffs to consumer home prices on comparable domestic mobile services. “Regulation is a last resort,” but the EC must balance its goals and their potential unintended consequences to ensure consumers benefit from Europe’s internal market, said Fabio Colasanti, Information Society & Media dir.-gen. Earlier this year the Commission launched a website on mobile roaming where it posts various operators’ roaming charges. But those prices don’t reflect true tariffs, since operators give one another discounts in return for steering traffic to one another’s networks, said Gunnar Forsgren, TeliaSonera senior vp-corporate affairs. And, while roaming cost does matter to consumers, domestic call and handset prices matter more, Vodafone Public Policy Dir. Richard Feasey said. In competitive markets prices ought to reflect consumer priorities, he said. “I see no reason” why roaming charges should be the same as domestic call tariffs if customers value domestic services more, he said, declaring the EC is starting with “the wrong object for regulation.” Roaming prices are falling and will keep doing so at an even faster pace, Wolfgang Kopf, T-Mobile exec. vp-public regulatory affairs said. Self-regulation could be an “additional tool to safeguard that process,” he said. But regulating roaming prices would hurt Europe’s mobile industry and consumers, he said. The 2nd phase of the EC inquiry ends May 15. A final proposal will be on the EC agenda in July, Reding’s spokesman said.
The Internet, wireless networks and mobile technologies allow ordinary people not only to consume media but to be it, the Media Center said Thurs. at the We Media conference in London. It launched a We Media Global Initiative aimed at encouraging investment in citizen-based media to give voice to marginalized groups, foster govt. accountability and incubate business and donor networks. The proposal envisions companies and individuals donating time, money, technology and airtime or distribution channels to “harness the power of information technologies and human ingenuity for the common good.” Panelists offered several suggestions. Recognize that future technologies will be just as revolutionary and those in use today, said Qualcomm Senior Vp Jeff Belk. Qualcomm believes that in 5-10 years what people do with their devices will be radically different from today’s uses and media will be just as different, he said. The voice missing at the 2-day conference was the consumer’s, said Katherine Von Jan of Infinia Group, a branding and communications consultant. Consumers must be considered as individuals creating their own “authenticity” and rejecting overly packaged, glamorous media presentations, she said. As people interact with the media, friends and family they develop a “digital aura” and leave footprints wherever they go. As people connect with each other, culture itself becomes the media, replacing objective journalism, she said. Scott Heiferman, founder and CEO of Meetup.com, gave a “shout out to the moms across America” who use the Internet to connect face-to-face; to the 200 Italian towns that have organized meetings by “using the Internet to get off the Internet”; and to India tech writers who used Meetup to plan after-work get-togethers that are leading to “union talk.” People don’t want to live their lives “in front of a screen,” Heiferman said. Vodafone Dir.-Global Content Graeme Ferguson reminded the audience that mobile operators and technology companies can create ways for people to connect but don’t have a good track record for guessing whether and how consumers will use them. Pay attention to the developing world, he said, because it, more than developed countries, is embracing mobile technologies. The most important action the media can take is to listen to experienced bloggers and watch how they work, fail, and handle the complex social interactions underlying their projects, an audience member said. During the conference, 2 companies committed to the initiative. Mobile software provider Picsel agreed to make its software available to noncommercial organizations. PDX.cn, a Chinese mobile blogging service, said it will provide mobile chat technology to a San Francisco project for Chinese-Americans.
Three trends will reshape the media business in the connected society, Nitin Desai, special asst. to the UN Secy.-Gen., said Wed.: The world’s shift in economic balance from developed to developing nations; more people exercising democratic rights; and emergence of new networking technologies. Real change will come from the Internet’s increasingly communitarian nature, Desai said at We Media 2006 London. The challenge is finding a business model that combines established media professionalism with the Web’s collaborative potential, he added.
The European Network & Information Security Agency (ENISA) was created legally, the European Court of Justice ruled Tues. The U.K. said otherwise, claiming national govts. should have created ENISA by unanimous consent after consulting the European Parliament, not by a qualified majority of ministers in co-decision with the parliament. But the court said the European Community Treaty’s single- market clause allows creation of EU agencies promoting a single European market even if basically nonregulatory. The opinion highlighted the close link between ENISA’s work and the EU e-communications regulatory framework, which share the goal of a single telecom services market. The European Commission said it will publish a strategic communique on network and information security at month’s end.