INTUG Responds to BEREC Report on Special Rate ServicesBEREC

Yesterday INTUG responded to a BEREC consultation on Special Rate Services, underlining the concerns business users have with the inconsistencies in the provision of these services between different EU member states, both in terms of numbering plans and charging principles.

Charging principles and structures, as in the analysis within the BEREC draft report, are also extremely complex and confusing, making costs for use and provision of Special Rate Services internationally unpredictable, costly, and a barrier to trade.

These services, like roaming charges and termination rates, do not easily lend themselves to structural solutions, which could introduce competition as a means of reducing end costs at wholesale and retail level, rather than price caps.

As many users contract for service bundles for fixed and mobile services, inclusion or exclusion of access to Special Rate Services becomes a significant cost issue.

International provision of special rate services must not suffer the drawbacks and failures linked to International Freephone, which was not implemented universally or successfully in Europe, which is sometimes blocked on mobile networks or not free, and which is still a required business service, nor those of the failed +3883 EU code.

Since convergence of fixed and mobile access is inevitable, and in many countries, for example in Eastern Europe, most private telephony is mobile, there must be no penalty for accessing Special Rate Services or Freephone Services from mobiles.

While the reputation of Special Rate Services has been damaged by association with “adult” service content, TV Show voting, fraudulent scams and excess revenue generation by long call hold times using multiple layer menus, they do provide vital facilities for business and residential users, such as directory enquiry, and must not therefore incur tariffs inflated by excessive costs levied by originating operators.

Download INTUG’s response.

Source: INTUG

Standards for “True 4G” Agreed at ITU Assembly

This week the specifications for next-generation mobile technologies – IMT-Advanced – were agreed by the ITU Radiocommunication Assembly in Geneva. The IMT-Advanced standard allows for capabilities that go beyond IMT-2000, widely deployed since 2000 and commonly referred to as 3G mobile technologies.

ITU has now specified the standards for IMT-Advanced, the next-generation global wireless broadband communications that provide access to a wide range of packet-based telecommunication services supported by mobile and fixed networks.

ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré hailed the announcement as a landmark development in mobile technology:

“IMT-Advanced marks a huge leap forward in state-of-the-art technologies, which will make the present day smart phone feel like an old dial up Internet connection. Access to the Internet, streaming videos and data transfers anytime, anywhere will be better than most desktop connections today.”

François Rancy, Director of ITU’s Radiocommunication Bureau, said,

“IMT-Advanced would be like putting a fiber optic broadband connection on your mobile phone, making your phone at least 100 times faster than today’s 3G smart phones. But it’s not only about speed; it’s about efficiency. IMT-Advanced will use radio-frequency spectrum much more efficiently making higher data transfers possible on lesser bandwidth. This will enable mobile networks to face the dramatic increase in data traffic that is expected in the coming years”

IMT-Advanced systems support low to high mobility applications and a wide range of data rates in accordance with user and service demands in multiple user environments. The standard also has capabilities for high quality multimedia applications within a wide range of services and platforms, providing a significant improvement in performance and quality of service.

Over the last 25 years, ITU has developed the IMT framework of standards — or International Mobile Telecommunications system — for mobile telephony and continues to lead international efforts involving governments and industry players to produce the next-generation standards for global mobile communications.

Read the full press release.

Source: ITU

INTUG and Fair Roaming Group Press for Lower Roaming Charges

Over the last few days, the proposed new EU mobile roaming regulation has come before the European Parliament and the Council. While many of the proposed amendments to the regulation are going in the right direction, the price caps are still much too high and the EU is risking destroying the business of small operators wishing to enter the roaming market.

INTUG and Europeans for Fair Roaming therefore demand that the European Parliament and the Council take the right decisions now.

The retail price caps for mobile phone users must be set at lower levels than that currently proposed. The targets should be:

• No more than 11ct for calls made by 2014
• Free receiving of calls from 2014 onwards
• No more than 10ct/MB for data by 2014

Furthermore, INTUG and FairRoaming.org warn against erecting high hurdles for market entrance and access to roaming services for small and virtual operators. Bengt Beier of Europeans for Fair Roaming stated:

“If the new rules make it too hard for new and small operators to offer innovative roaming services, there will be no competition and roaming will remain as expensive as it is. And even worse, the existence of small operators and thousands of jobs could be threatened! The end users want lower prices for roaming and the new regulation has to deliver these.”

Nick White of INTUG stated,

“These are extremely important issues for business users. If the regulation fails to introduce lower price caps, new low-cost roaming services and the freedom of users to choose their roaming operators, European businesses will continue to be seriously hindered in their ability to introduce innovative and more efficient cross-border processes. The absence of an international market for mobile services with the obstruction of MVNOs, can only be overcome by some form of structural change in the mobile market. The current situation with unjustifiably high roaming charges, especially for data, is damaging Europe’s competitive position and blocking investment in growth generating and job creating activities.”

INTUG and FairRoaming.org issued a joint statement regarding their concerns.

Read the full press release.

Source: INTUG

EU Roaming Regulation Faces National Hurdles, Delays

EU’s Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes is under intense pressure from member states that are threatening to delay or water down her proposal to abolish cross-border tariffs on mobile phone calls within Europe by 2016.

The EU telecoms ministers, who were meeting in Brussels yesterday nearly unanimously underlined the necessity to further explore technical solutions to implement key aspects of Kroes’s proposal. They said that new roaming regulation should not include technical solutions but only general principles.

Last summer Kroes had proposed two important changes to the European market for mobile phone roaming services – decoupling and virtual operators.

Decoupling allows customers to switch operators when they are abroad, ensuring clients always get the best deal on offer in any given country without having to change SIM cards.

Linked to decoupling was the idea of opening competition for roaming services to completely new providers – so-called virtual operators – specialized in the sale of roaming packages.

Both provisions need technical solutions to be applied. But while time is running short – the existing roaming regulation expires in mid-2012 – an agreement on those is currently not in sight.

“We are in a hurry,”

said Kroes, speaking to the EU’s 27 telecom ministers during a public deliberation of the Council.

If the timeline is not respected, caps on roaming phone calls will disappear as of next summer, with the risk of bill shocks for European customers when they make cross-border mobile phone calls.

Despite the time pressure, many member states underlined that the market is not yet ready to choose one technical solution rather than another, especially when it comes to the thorny issue of decoupling.

Big operators like Vodafone could indeed benefit from the measure by exploiting their bigger trans-European networks to lure clients from smaller mobile phone operators.

Smaller operators could face higher competition also from new entrants and risk seeing their margins dangerously trimmed. Consumers would likely benefit from lower prices in the short term but lower competition would probably reverse this trend in the longer run.

Ministers therefore suggested waiting for technical advice from the group of telecoms authorities (BEREC) before applying a specific technical solution. The experts will have to look into the technologies available to allow dual identity SIM cards that are able to support the services of both a national and a cross-border operator.

Aware of the limited time frame, a few ministers suggested adopting a plan B if technical work took too long.

“The Commission should provide options in case we cannot adopt a new regulation by July 2012,”

underlined the British delegate.

Delays on decoupling will also likely postpone the European Commission’s other key proposal on virtual operators. As their name suggests, virtual operators do not have a network of their own and rely on established national telecoms firms, which have developed their network over the years.

Potential virtual operators are often active in the retail or postal services sector and include the likes of Carrefour, Tesco or Poste Italiane. Without decoupling, it would be impossible for them to enter the roaming market.

Further progress might also be hampered in the European Parliament where the MEP in charge of the roaming regulation, Angelika Niebler (European People’s Party), has proposed changes that could prevent virtual operators from entering the roaming market, even if decoupling were introduced.

Niebler wants to force virtual operators to follow a number of procedures that are seen by some experts as the reason why alternative service providers have never taken off in the European roaming market.

Read more on the EurActiv web site.

Source: Euractiv

Fifty % of European Businesses uses Mobile Broadband in 2011

In the EU27, enterprises
1
 use the internet for a variety of purposes, among others, to present information on a
website, offer online shopping facilities to customers and interact with public authorities
2
. In the  EU27, 95% of
enterprises had access to the internet in January 2011. The share of enterprises having a fixed broadband
connection
3
 to access the internet grew slightly from 84% in 2010 to 87% in 2011. On the other hand, the use of
mobile broadband connections
3
 by enterprises in the EU27 increased significantly in the same period, from 27% to
47%.
In 2010, the majority of enterprises in the EU27 used the internet to interact with public authorities (e-government),
with 74% of enterprises obtaining information from public authorities' websites and 69% submitting completed
forms electronically
4
.
These data come from a report
5
 published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, and form
part of the results of a survey  conducted at the beginning of 2011 on  ICT (Information and Communication
Technologies) usage and e-commerce in enterprises in the EU27 Member States, Norway and Croatia, with a
special focus on internet use to interact with public authorities.
Largest shares of enterprises with mobile broadband connection to the internet in Finland,
Sweden and Austria
The level of internet access and fixed broadband internet connections among enterprises in January 2011 was high
in nearly all EU27 Member States. The share of enterprises having mobile broadband connections to the internet
grew in all Member States from 2010 to 2011, with the largest increases registered in Estonia (from 9% in 2010 to
48% in 2011),  Germany (from 22% to 57%),  Greece (from 6% to 38%) and  France (from 28% to 60%). The
highest shares of enterprises with mobile broadband access in 2011 were found in Finland (77%), Sweden (67%)
and Austria (65%), and the lowest in Romania (15%), Latvia (23%) and Poland (24%).
Obtaining information from public authorities' websites common among EU enterprises
More than 90% of all enterprises in  Slovakia (94%),  Lithuania and  Finland (both 92%) and  Sweden (91%)
reported that they used the internet to obtain information from public authorities' websites in 2010, while it was less
than half of enterprises in Romania (47%) and the Netherlands (48%). On the other hand, 97% of enterprises in
the Netherlands reported that they used the internet in 2010 to  submit completed forms electronically to public
authorities, followed by 93% in Lithuania and 87% in Greece, Poland and Finland. In Italy and Romania (both
39%) and  Cyprus (40%) it was less common for enterprises to use the internet for the purpose of submitting
completed forms electronically.

Proposal to Regulate Cloud Computing by European Commission

Speech of Ms. Neelie Kroes - EC VP for Digital Agenda during WEF Conference at Davos, Switzerland, 26 January 2012:

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Cloud Computing will change our economy. It can bring significant productivity benefits to all, right through to the smallest companies, and also to individuals. It promises scalable, secure services for greater efficiency, greater flexibility, and lower cost.

Our flagging economies need us to make the best out of this. We cannot afford anything less. We need to act to support speedy uptake of Cloud Computing in Europe.

This time last year I announced my plan to launch a Cloud Computing Strategy that would make Europe not just Cloud-friendly but Cloud-active.

Since then, consultations with Cloud providers, users and consumers have been extensive. Much work has also been done by interested parties in Europe and with major trading partners to identify the main issues that need to be addressed.

The results are clear: many still hesitate before the Cloud. They worry: how do I know what service I am buying? Will my data be protected? Which providers can I trust? If I don't like what I am getting, can I switch providers easily? Or, if I really don't like what I'm getting, can I easily enforce the contract through legal action?

All these issues – standards, certification, data protection, interoperability, lock-in, legal certainty and others – are particularly troublesome for smaller companies. They are the ones who stand to benefit the most from the Cloud – but who don't have a lot of spending power, nor resources for individual negotiations with Cloud suppliers.

Where these barriers exist, I am determined to overcome them.

We have already made a start on the regulatory side: the Commission has proposed new rules for data protection in the twenty-first century, including for data in the Cloud.

But we can do more. Look at the public sector. Public IT procurement is large, about twenty percent of the market, but today it is fragmented with limited impact. We can harness this buying power through more harmonisation and integration. And, yes, ultimately also through joint public procurement across borders. Why is this important? Because the Cloud sector will listen and adapt, creating benefits for Cloud adoption throughout our economy. For example: more standardised services, new and better offers, cheaper prices. And it is a true win-win: the Cloud market will grow, bringing opportunities for existing suppliers and new entrants. And Cloud buyers, including the public sector, will buy more with less and become more efficient.

How do we get there? Today I am inviting public authorities and industry, Cloud buyers and suppliers, to come together in a European Cloud Partnership.

In the first phase, the Partnership will come up with common requirements for Cloud procurement. For this it will look at standards; it will look at security; it will look at ensuring competition, not lock-in.

In the second phase the Partnership will deliver proof of concept solutions for the common requirements.

In the third phase reference implementations will be built.

The Commission will launch the Partnership with an initial investment of 10 million euros. I expect good progress in setting it up in 2012 and first results in 2013.

The Partnership's initial work will create a strong common basis for Cloud procurement by public authorities. In the beginning, Cloud procurement might still be conducted separately. However, even in that form, the benefits of a common approach will begin to accrue – to Cloud buyers and suppliers. And by the way, there is no reason why procurement by private businesses and organisations would not adapt in this direction as well. Later on, public bodies, whether local, regional or at Member State level, may find it useful to develop the Partnership further so that it can play a role in a move towards increased pooling of resources and ultimately joint procurement.

Will it work? Something similar has been done for the federal administration in the United States. A group of European Scientific Institutions, lead by the European Space Agency and CERN, are advancing an analogous project among themselves. But we face a complex landscape, probably more complex than the one faced by the US or the scientific community. That means we need more commitment and initiative to get there. This is what Europe is about: doing things together where it makes sense.

There is and I want to be clear about it: The Cloud Partnership, and indeed our overall Cloud Computing strategy, is not about building a European super-Cloud, neither outright nor by forcing the integration of existing public Cloud infrastructures. Cloud business models, and the set-up of Cloud suppliers' and publicly-run data centres, should be determined by efficiency considerations on the market.

We are already talking to potential partners and working on setting up this European Cloud Partnership. No doubt the concept will evolve as more details are fixed. These will be set out, together with other elements, in the European Cloud Computing Strategy later this year. A strategy as a whole to ensure Europe becomes not just Cloud-friendly, but Cloud-active.

I am looking forward to the discussions.

Thank you very much for your attention.

International Call Traffic Growth Slows as Skype’s Volumes Soar

International long distance traffic growth is slowing rapidly. According to new data from TeleGeography, international long distance traffic grew four percent in 2011, to 438 billion minutes. This growth rate was less than one-third of the industry’s long-run historical average of 13 percent annual growth. Because telcos must rely on strong volume growth to offset inevitable price declines, slowing traffic growth is making life ever more difficult for international service providers.

International Long Distance Traffic Growth, Carriers vs. Skype

Source: TeleGeography
In contrast to international phone traffic, Skype’s cross-border traffic has continued to soar. TeleGeography estimates that cross-border Skype-to-Skype calls (including video calls) grew 48 percent in 2011, to 145 billion minutes. Although the volume of international traffic routed via telephone companies remains more than three times greater than Skype’s cross-border volumes, their growth rates differ dramatically. TeleGeography estimates that Skype added 47 billion minutes of international traffic in 2011—more than twice as much as all the telephone companies in the world, combined.
“Given Skype’s enormous traffic volumes, it’s difficult not to conclude that at least some of Skype’s growth is coming at the expense of traditional carriers,” said TeleGeography analyst Stephan Beckert. “If all of Skype’s on-net traffic had been routed via phone companies, global cross-border telephone traffic would have grown 13 percent in 2011, remaining in line with historical growth rates.”
The TeleGeography Report has been a vital source of statistics and analysis for the international long distance market for 20 years. To find out more and to download the executive summary, please visit http://www.telegeography.com/product-info/tg/index.php.
(Source: telegeography.com)