The European Commission (EC) has launched a new consultation on EU state aid rules for the public funding of broadband networks, which appears to mark a shift in focus away from the “good progress” of connecting all citizens to basic broadband and more towards facilitating the roll-out of “ultra-fast” networks (100Mbps+) “under certain conditions“.
Telecoms operator O2 UK (Telefonica) has become the country’s first mobile network to announced cheaper prices for using your mobile phone or Mobile Broadband connection while roaming abroad within the EU, which reflects Europe’s new roaming regulation for voice, text (sms) messages and data charges (New EU Roaming Rules).
The European Parliament (EC) has today voted unanimously (578 in favour, 10 opposing and 10 abstentions) to adopt new rules that, effective from 1st July 2012 (all EU Member States), will make it significantly cheaper to surf the internet from your Mobile Broadband connection while roaming abroad within the EU. The price of mobile voice calls and text (SMS) messages will also fall.
The European Commission (EC) has today opened a new consultation that aims to cut the costs of broadband investment by 25% and thus make it cheaper to deploy new networks for “high speed internet” in the EU. Priority will be given to reducing the costs associated with civil engineering (i.e. digging up roads to lay fibre optic cable), which can account for up to 80% of the total cost.
The European Commission (EC) has today reached a preliminary deal that should make it significantly cheaper to surf the internet from your Mobile Broadband connection while roaming abroad within the EU. In addition the price of mobile voice calls and text (SMS) messages will also be slashed.
The Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications (BEREC), which is composed of the heads from 27 national regulators (e.g. Ofcom in the UK), has published its preliminary findings on internet Traffic Management practices by broadband ISPs and mobile operators in Europe. The practices were found to “vary widely” between countries and providers with some exceptions, the blocking of VoIP (e.g. Skype) and P2P (BitTorrent – File Sharing) traffic is common.
The Vice President of the European Commission’s (EC) Digital Agenda strategy, Neelie Kroes, suggested in a speech to the Cable Congress of the European Cable Communications Association (Brussels, Germany) yesterday that it was “not possible” for Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) technology to “really provide 100 Megabits” superfast broadband ISP speeds. Naturally BTOpenreach, which is using the same technology for its national UK rollout, disagrees.