House of Lords - Broadband for all - an alternative vision

House of Lords - Broadband for all - an alternative vision - Communications Committee: "In our view, the benefits of opening up the restrictions on PIA are likely to be significant, particularly were policy to be re-oriented towards the establishment of open access fibre-optic hubs, as we advocate. Removing the restrictions on PIA may, of course, have knock-on effects for the effectiveness and coherence of other aspects of the overall regulatory edifice...234. ...since May 2011, Ofcom has had the power by virtue of Article 12 of the Revised EU Framework Directive, transposed into UK law, to impose regulatory obligations with regard to infrastructure sharing in the broadband market without reference to SMP." 'via Blog this'

Network access charges imposed by BT unjustified, Court of Appeal rules

Network access charges imposed by BT on rivals were unjustified, Court of Appeal rules: "The Court rejected claims by BT that the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) had not acted in accordance with EU telecoms laws when it considered whether what it had charged rivals was acceptable. Instead it ruled that BT's prices had served to distort the market to the detriment of its rivals and consumers.
Virgin Media and Cable & Wireless were among the telecoms firms that had challenged whether BT had breached charging restrictions imposed on it by the UK's telecoms regulator.
Ofcom had conducted an investigation into the 'partial private circuits' (PPCs) market in 2004." 'via Blog this'

Margin squeeze modelling can be simple or complicated, but never trivial

Margin squeeze modelling can be simple or complicated, but never trivial - Analysys Mason Group: "The legal work surrounding margin (or price) squeeze allegations is extensive and complex. However, in these cases some kind of margin squeeze model will be used, which will form the foundation to prove or disprove the legal case. The margin squeeze model will present the underlying numerical comparison of costs, prices (revenue) and profit margins relevant to the business situation being tested. Margin squeeze models can be simple or complicated, and the choices made will always be argued to fit the case in question. These choices (which we structure as scale, scope, financial test and cost/price principles) strongly affect the complexity of the margin model, its inputs, assumptions, calculations and outputs" 'via Blog this'

Article 7a of the EU telecoms Framework Directive

Article 7a of the EU telecoms Framework Directive: first thoughts on second guessing a second guess - Newsletter – Analysys Mason Quarterly - News | Analysys Mason Group: "Commission has recently issued a significant number of 7a 'Phase 2' letters. Each of these requires BEREC to respond within six weeks. Insiders have told us that this is placing a significant burden on the NRAs (which provide the manpower to BEREC); given the restricted duration, the process requires NRA experts to make decisions (about whether they agree with the draft BEREC approach) within days, even if the relevant expert in that NRA is on leave or fully busy in their own country. Many NRAs do not have sufficient resources to contribute fully.
Secondly, BEREC has always agreed with the Commission – until last month, when it disagreed with half of the Commission's reasoning in a case related to mobile termination in France. This is probably a positive development overall, showing that the system of 'checks and balances' can work. Nevertheless, BEREC is making rapid decisions about issues that are important and have wider implications than the narrow cases involved, which could lead to bad precedents being set." 'via Blog this'

Brussels backs down on telecoms pricing - FT.com

Brussels backs down on telecoms pricing - FT.com: "Investors in large telecoms groups had feared further pressure on revenues amid need to spend more on fibre networks. Nick Delfas, analyst at Morgan Stanley, said the proposals remove the potential negative of falling prices and should help build investor confidence over time.
Kroes said the new policy aimed to boost the investment in fibre networks for fast internet connections by allowing incumbent telecom groups to maintain charges for access to their existing copper infrastructure and so guaranteeing stable returns." 'via Blog this'

EC challenges regulatory remedies: Netherlands wholesale call termination / Denmark wholesale SMS MT

From T-Regs: The European Commission has, for the first time, 'proceeded all the way' through the Art 7a FD procedure and has formally issued a Recommendation to an NRA requiring it to amend or withdraw proposed regulatory obligations ('remedies'). The case at hand concerns the OPTA (Netherlands) notification for wholesale fixed call termination and wholesale mobile call termination.

The European Commission's press release is accessible via:http://tre.gs/4n 

OPTA has also issued a press release, accessible via: http://tre.gs/4p

Update 25 June 2012: The European Commission's Recommendation has been published: European Commission Recommendation C(2012) 3770 in Case NL/2012/1284

Diplomatic Arm-Wrestling Over Scope Of WCIT (ITU Treaty)

Diplomatic Arm-Wrestling Over Scope Of International Telecommunication Regulations Treaty | Intellectual Property Watch: "Among the hotly debated high-level issues was that if ITU recommendations become mandatory instead of voluntary. This could shift ITU standards into quasi-legal norms and give them privileges over standards from other standardization bodies. Yet the 47-member European regional group, represented by the Conférence Européenne des Administrations des Postes et des Télécommunications (CEPT, one of six regional groups at ITU), warned the ITR could “not be used to change the non-binding nature of ITU recommendations.” Other issues of contention are additional provisions on security, from anti-spam provisions to the obligation to provide a calling line identification (CLI), potentially also for internet telephony, to allow tracking misuse. 
Internet telephony using SIP protocol is seen by some ITU member states as siphoning off revenues from classic telephony providers, as a statement by Iran’s ITU representative made clear. African countries want to see cost-based transit, termination, and roaming rates, transparency, and an effort from member states to act against asymmetries of charging. The US favours a completely hands-off approach, and Europe is trying to get compromise on administrations pushing for economic efficiency, competition and price transparency for customers.

Compromise about the paragraph on charging for international telecommunication services given the diametrically opposed proposals, on one hand leave charging to the market (as proposed by the US and also CEPT) versus having regulators involved in the pricing on the other hand (as proposed by the Arab states, but also Russia) are still on the to-do list for the last prep meeting in June. From the point of view of the IP address managers, what is even more scary are considerations with regard to state intervention on routing. 'via Blog this'

Europe's Broadband Implementation Strategy

Europe's Information Society Newsroom: "Commission has now published a Staff Working Document. It summarises the current state of play in national broadband plans and fosters a mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge on good practices between countries by assembling examples of national implementation measures."
'via Blog this'

Competition Appeals Tribunal slashes mobile phone termination rate cuts

Competition Appeals Tribunal slashes mobile phone termination rate cuts, going beyond Ofcom's rates - Competition Policy International (CPI): to 0.65p per minute by 2015 (about 0.8eurocents)

'via Blog this'

Commission suspends discriminatory Danish SMS price regulation

EUROPA - Press Releases - Digital Agenda: Commission suspends discriminatory Danish SMS price regulation and starts an in-depth review: " expressed similar concerns regarding the discrimination of SMS coming from operators providing telecommunication services in other Member States. Howev"

'via Blog this'

UK broadband speed climbs 22 percent

UK broadband speed climbs 22 percent | Networking | ZDNet UK: note that this reflects a shift to fibre in cities...

'via Blog this'

Li Ka-shing’s Hutchison finally sees 3G profits

BBC News - Li Ka-shing’s Hutchison finally sees 3G profits:

'via Blog this'

For real? How mobile oligopolies work...France

For real? « Chillin'Competition:

'via Blog this'

UMG vs Veoh - what content giants can do to start-ups

UNCENSORED - A personal experience with DMCA - UMG vs Veoh - minglewing:

'via Blog this'

NBN Co unclogs sign-up pipeline • The Register

NBN Co unclogs sign-up pipeline • The Register:

'via Blog this'

Submarine Cable Map

Submarine Cable Map:

'via Blog this'

ECJ confirms that special (lower) tax on France Télécom was state aid

“to tax him with injustice”*: ECJ confirms that special (lower) tax on France Télécom was state aid : contentandcarrier:

'via Blog this'

National judges' implementation seminar 28 November

Agenda here: 'via Blog this'

COCOM agenda for 46th Meeting

See the agenda online for Member States' meeting: 'via Blog this'

Commission presses 16 Member States to implement new EU telecoms rules

EUROPA - Press Releases - Digital Agenda: Commission presses 16 Member States to implement new EU telecoms rules:

'via Blog this'