p2pnet - rss feed: EU call for one-stop telecom regulator
p2pnet news view Politics | P2P:- Two hundred million People have access to broadband in Europe. Sixty percent of all public services are available online. Two-thirds of all schools use broadband.
Those are the official stats and European MPs have just approved a telecoms package which will directly affect millions of Net users by setting up a new telecoms agency with the power to force companies to separate their network operations from their retail divisions.
The reforms affect the EU Telecom rules, in place since 2003, aiming to strengthen consumer rights and privacy protection,” said a recent press release, going on that for some bloggers and internet users around Europe, “it has been contentious, with claims that parts of the package could threaten online privacy.”
UK Conservative Malcolm Harbour, who’s pushing the proposals, labelled the interpretations put on some amendments as “alarmist” and “scare-mongering,” says the statement.
Meanwhile, “This will level the playing field for telecoms operators in Europe, enhance legal certainty, and broaden consumer choice,” promises EU Telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding, going on:
“Yesterday, the European Commission had to propose new rules to bring down the excessive prices of SMS and data roaming in the EU.
“These proposals will provide a fast cure to one of the most dramatic symptoms of the lack of a single telecoms market under which European companies and consumers are suffering at the moment. Today, the European Parliament has gone an important step further by proposing to tackle once and for all the root of the problem: by paving the way for a single market in regulatory terms.”
Says the CBC:
“A consumer protection plan, where telecom providers will have to fully disclose any restrictions on their services, was also given the green light. The proposals must now be approved by the governments of member states.”
The idea was, “pioneered by Britain’s regulator, Ofcom, which forced the country’s big phone provider, BT, to split off a separate network business in 2006,” says the story.
“The new division, called Openreach, sells access to BT’s network — much of which was built using taxpayer money when the company was a state-controlled monopoly — to competing firms, who then sell their own internet services to customers.”
However, “The lawmakers also weakened another related proposal, saying the new body should not oversee network and information security questions,” says Agence France-Presse, adding:
“The MEPs in addition rejected a call that the Commission be allowed to veto remedies introduced by a national regulator to improve competition.
“Under the parliamentary version, Brussels would have to discuss the matter with the new EU regulatory authority, which would have the final say.”
press release - Internet privacy safe, say telecoms MEPs, September 23, 2008
Viviane Reding - Telecoms Reform: Parliament vote paves way for Single Telecoms Market in Europe, September 25, 2008
CBC - EU getting tough on telecom companies, September 24, 2008
Agence France-Presse - EU parliament waters down telecoms reforms, September 24, 2008
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