EU

German Digital Dividend auction faces threat of EU legal action

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:02:08 -0400

Regardless of rumblings from the European Commission, the advisory board of Germany's network regulator, the Federal Network Agency (FNA), has given the green-light to auction a spectrum package of 360MHz, including spectrum in the ‘digital dividend' range of 800MHz.

This move has promoted the EU to register its ‘deep concern' about the FNA's decision to ignore the commission's advice on how to ensure fair competition in allocating digital frequency in Germany. A spokesman said that, if the commission finds EU laws were not respected by the German plan it "would not shy away from enforcing the EU's competition and single market rules in this important context."

According to the EU, the FNA plans to auction licences for frequencies to supply mobile internet access to rural areas, in accordance with the broadband initiative by the federal government, sometime in Q2/2010. This has provoked complaints from the smaller operators in Germany--E-Plus and O2--claiming that the auction would benefit the much larger incumbent mobile operators, Vodafone and T-Mobile.

The FNA apparently plans to award only three 20MHz blocks of frequencies in the 800MHz, meaning one operator will be excluded. While this has aggrieved the smaller operators, T-Mobile and Vodafone have welcomed the move, with the latter adding that "we now hope that the auction will be actively pursued at the beginning of next year."

For more on this story:
Total Telecom and Telegeography

Orange and T-Mobile hike non-EU roaming charges

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:32:57 -0400

While the industry has been distracted by the planned merger talks between Orange and T-Mobile UK, both firms have quietly slipped out details of huge price increases to their roaming charges when calling outside of the EU.

Regardless of the EU imposing price capping on voice, text and data charges when roaming within member states, Orange UK and T-Mobile UK have stated that the price increases - approaching 100 per cent, will take effect next month for calls made to non-EU countries, such as Switzerland. Calls to the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand will rise from between 55-75p per minute to a new cost of £1.20 per minute. Other countries will likely see their call rates increased by 10-20p per minute.

T-Mobile has blamed the unexpected price rise on the weak pound and rate hikes imposed by local service providers. It attempted to justify the tariff change because of the requirement to reduce the price of sending text messages within Europe, in line with price caps issued by the EU.

However, a recent study by Acision, the messaging company, claims that consumers are not using their mobiles abroad - in fact only 12 per cent used their mobiles as much overseas as when they were at home. Acision believes that this presents a massive opportunity for potential revenue growth for operators, and, if they are able to answer customers' fears and needs they can surely embrace it. The research highlighted that nearly two thirds of consumers were completely unaware of the charges associated with using their mobiles abroad while only 10 per cent felt they were being charged a fair price.

For more on this story:
Mobile Today

LTE Advanced: EU to invest 18m euros to capture lead in next-gen wireless standard

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:25:24 -0400

In an attempt to replicate the success achieved with formulating the GSM standard, the EU has announced the creation of an €18 million R&D fund to ensure Europe has a strong influence on the direction of LTE.

While LTE has yet to be commercially deployed, the EU hopes that this new funding will trigger European technology developers to start work on LTE Advanced (why not LTE+?), with this next progression to offer download capacities of up to 1Gbps, a significant increase over the promised 100Mbps available from LTE.

According to Richard Webb from the market research company Infonetics, this move by the EU indicates how important mobile broadband has become. "But it perhaps tells how Europe has lost some of its edge--especially compared to Asia--as the market has moved on to more advanced wireless technologies."

The development of LTE was also assisted by EU funding which totalled €25 million some years ago. Trials of the technology are already underway in the UK, Sweden, Spain, Norway, Germany and Finland with other countries in the pipeline. 3G operators are forecast to spend around €6 billion on LTE equipment over the next four years.

Commenting on the launch of this investment programme - which is expected to become available in January 2010, the EU Telecoms Commissioner, Viviane Reding, said, "Europe's research know-how will continue to set the tone for the development of mobile services and devices around the globe, just as we did in the past decades with the GSM standard."

For more on this story:
PC World and Broadband Genie

Spectrum refarming gets EU go-ahead

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:49:01 -0400

The likelihood of mobile broadband becoming a viable alternative to fixed line access has taken a significant step forward following the EU Council of Ministers approving an amended GSM Directive that will open up the 900MHz GSM band for advanced data services.

While individual regulators, such as Finland's, have unilaterally cleared the refarming of GSM bands for 3G (or even LTE) usage to support wireless broadband services, especially in rural areas, an EU-wide agreement sets the stage for accelerated expansion of these data services, while protecting existing voice phone availability.

By giving the go-ahead to refarm the 900MHz spectrum, mobile operators will be able to provide much wider coverage and better in-building penetration by using this lower frequency. According to the EU, using the 900MHz band should save mobile operators about €1.6 billion in network costs associated with mobile Internet delivery, and could help achieve a European target of growing the number of mobile Internet users from about 92 million now, to 500 million within a few years.

This move could see the UK government increase pressure on the mobile operators to take a major role in achieving universal broadband by using HSPA for populations underserved by wired lines.

For more on this story:
Rethink Wireless and EE Times

EU looks set to force operators to carry mobile VoIP traffic

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 12:52:01 -0400

Stung by Deutsche Telekom's refusal to allow mobile VoIP calls across its T-Mobile network, the EU is preparing to issue new rules that will prevent European operators from blocking VoIP traffic, claiming it is an abuse of their dominant market position. Currently, each European operator is allowed to choose what Internet traffic to block and what to allow.

Meanwhile, the high-profile EU Telecoms Commissioner, Viviane Reding, has requested member countries take legal action against operators that block the introduction of innovative services through the use of their near-monopoly situation in major markets. However, while the EU may look favourably on the lifting of these obstacles, Reding has admitted the draft document covering the new VoIP rules remains incomplete and ‘"not as clear as the EU would want it to be."

Regardless of these rumblings, a spokesman for T-Mobile has calmly acknowledged its ban on mobile VoIP calls might be considered controversial, and could be risky in the future.

Some months ago, Nokia announced, to the annoyance of many operators, that it planned to include the VoIP Skype software on many of its new handsets. Since then, the company has back-tracked on this commitment stating that the Skype application would only ship on a limited number of new Nokia cell phones.

For more on this story:
Softpedia and MocoNews

EU data roaming costs to plummet by 75%, and no more bill shock

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:39:05 -0400

The EU has given approval, albeit preliminary, to new roaming regulations that could see voice and data roaming charges reduced significantly by 2011, with an upper limit on data roaming charges that should stop subscribers inadvertently running up huge bills for data downloads--hopefully bringing an end to "bill shock."

In summary, the new cross-border charges should be reduced as follows:

The wholesale price of data roaming should fall from the current €2.05 average to €1 per megabyte from July 1 2009. Then to €0.80 from July 1, 2010, and to just €0.50 from July 1, 2011.
The retail price of SMS roaming should fall from the current €0.49 average per message to €0.11 from July 1 this year.
There will be an upper price limit of €50 for data roaming charges with operators required to inform the user when they have reached 80 per cent of their desired data roam rate and will block roaming services if a user does not respond.
Per-second voice billing starting after the first 30 seconds as opposed to charging phone calls by the beginning of every minute.

However, while the EU might impose these changes on European mobile operators, it remains unclear how much of these reductions might be passed on to consumers--the data roaming pricing is based upon wholesale costs which could be hidden from the consumer by bundling.

Prior to enforcing these measure they must now be endorsed by the parliament's industry committee and the Council of Ministers before going to a parliamentary plenary in April.

For more on this story:
MocoNews and ISPreview

Voice roaming needs greater competition, claims Euro regulatory body

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 06:59:54 -0400

Pointing at the lack of price competition, the European Regulators Group (ERG), an independent body which groups all the European Union member states' telecoms regulators, has stated that there is an obvious need to extend voice roaming regulation and to consider new measures to curb excesses in SMS roaming.

The ERG accepted that preliminary data for the period October 2007 to March 2008 indicated that the new Eurotariff had successfully capped voice roaming charges, but the information also showed that prices clustered just below the cap, indicating no evidence of price competition or tariff innovation.

The ERG has said it will advise the European Commission and the European Parliament on the need for further regulation ahead of a further round of reform of the rules governing the telecoms sector.

For more on this story:
- read AFX News

Related stories:
EU operators jack up roaming fees. Roaming fees story
EU launches inquiry into mobile data roaming fees. EU inquiry story

EU says handsets 'ideal' for Europe-wide ID cards

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 06:59:54 -0400

The EU has entered the politically sensitive issue of ID cards with the suggestion that cell phones would be the ideal platform. The EU has given the go-ahead to test cross-border electronic ID systems in an effort to create pan-European recognition of the 30 million national ID cards currently in use in 13 member states.

ID cards are already used within Europe to access a variety of public services, with the idea now being to align and link these systems without replacing existing ones. The EU wants the new system to allow citizens to identify themselves electronically in a secure way and deal with public agencies either online or ideally from mobile phones. Viviane Reding, the EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, has entered the debate claiming that electronic identities do not yet do enough for mobile EU citizens. "The Stork project moves us a step closer to seamless movement between EU countries that Europeans expect from a borderless Single European Market." Stork (Secure idenTity acrOss boRders linKed), is being led by the U.K. Identity & Passport Service and will run for three years and receive €10m in funding from the European Commission.

For more on this story:
- read PC Advisor

Related stories:
Finland to Allow National ID on Cell Phones. ID Card story

Roamers outside Europe hit by price hike

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 06:59:57 -0400

The enforced cut in roaming fees imposed on European operators by the EU has seen roaming calls into Europe increased by a massive 163 per cent. Operators are said to have lifted call tariffs in an attempt to offset the losses from roaming charges within Europe.

According to Informa analyst Angela Stainthorpe, since the EU roaming regulation came into force, operators have reported roaming revenue declines into the hundreds of millions of Euros. "As roaming traffic growth hasn't kept up with falling tariffs, operators are looking elsewhere to recoup their losses.

For example, said Stainthorpe, the average price of a call home to Italy made by a subscriber roaming in Russia was €3.67 (excluding VAT) per minute in 2006 but had risen 25 per cent to €4.58 since the Eurotariff came into play. A German mobile user outside the EU has seen a massive 163.7 per cent price increase since 2006 for a call home from Africa.

For more on this story:
read Telecoms.com

Related stories:
EU launches inquiry into mobile data roaming fees. Roaming fees story
European roaming charges falling--official. Roaming charges story

EU defines coverage parameters for mobile satellite services

Mon, 26 May 2008 06:59:54 -0400

Operators wanting to offer mobile services using satellites need to read the fine print of the latest EU decision regarding the coverage requirements for each European country.

This move follows approval from the European Parliament that confirms that satellite services will need to cover at least 60 per cent of every country in Europe--and 50 per cent of their populations, in order to get operating spectrum. The EU believes these new mobile services will be used to 'improve accessibility, speed, and quality of electronic communications services especially in rural areas.' However, given the several-second latency associated with geo-stationary satellites, it remains unclear what services can be effectively offered via this transmission platform.

For more on this story:
-read The Register

Related stories:
ICO Global launches mobile services satellite. ICO story
MSV, Nortel team on WiMAX. Satellite story