Wednesday, December 19, 2012

State aid: Commission adopts new Broadband Guidelines

EUROPA - PRESS RELEASES - Press Release - State aid: Commission adopts new Broadband Guidelines: "The European Commission has adopted revised guidelines for the application of EU state aid rules to the broadband sector. These guidelines will help Member States achieve the objectives of the EU Digital Agenda. Taking into account the extensive submissions from all stakeholders, they contain in particular a reinforcement of open access obligations and improved transparency rules. They also follow the principles of the Commission's State Aid Modernisation (SAM) initiative, which aims at facilitating well-designed aid targeted at market failures in order to achieve growth-enhancing priorities, while simplifying the rules to allow for faster decisions." 'via Blog this'

Tuesday, December 04, 2012

“Sender-pays” rule doesn’t necessarily increase telecom investment

“Sender-pays” rule doesn’t necessarily increase telecom investment | Ars Technica: ""My results contradict the hypothesis that the ability to charge more for international Internet traffic is all that is needed to build out telecommunications infrastructure in poor countries," Dourado concludes. "High international telephone collection rates have not led to greater buildout and adoption of telecommunications infrastructure in the past two decades. It seems unlikely, therefore, that adopting a sender-pays model for Internet traffic would increase buildout of Internet infrastructure today."
Rather, Dourado suggests the quality of a nation's telecommunications network is dependent on the quality of its domestic institutions. Some countries have telecommunications industries that efficiently put new revenues to work on network improvements. Other countries have corrupt or incompetent telecommunications incumbents that will upgrade their networks slowly no matter how much money they're given. He argues that regulatory reforms, not more cash, are needed to improve global network quality." 'via Blog this'