EU lawmakers approved net neutrality protections and an end to mobile roaming fees Thursday, as expected (CD April 3 p13). By a 534-25 vote on the European Commission-proposed “connected continent” package, members of the European Parliament barred Internet access providers from blocking or slowing selected services for economic or other reasons. They also approved language banning mobile data, voice and text roaming charges as of Dec. 15, 2015. Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) wanted clear rules to stop Internet access providers from promoting some services at the expense of others, Parliament said. Under the language approved, providers would still be able to offer specialized services of higher quality, such as VOD, as long as that doesn’t affect the availability or quality of access services offered to other companies or service suppliers, it said. Amendments also shortened the EC’s list of cases in which access providers could still be entitled to block or slow the Internet. MEPs want those practices to be permitted only to enforce a court order, safeguard network security or prevent temporary network congestion, Parliament said. All Internet traffic must be treated equally, without discrimination, restriction or interference, regardless of the sender, recipient, type, content, device, service or application, it said. The Netherlands enshrined net neutrality into law in 2012, noted MEP Marietje Schaake, of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, the amendments of which she said helped close loopholes in the text. “The public value of an open internet can not be underestimated,” she said in a news release. Digital rights activists were overjoyed, telcos dismayed. The net neutrality vote “established the EU as the major global force to protect the freedom of the open internet,” said European Digital Rights Executive Director Joe McNamee in a news release. By amending the text with cross-party amendments, MEPs “took a historic step” to protect net neutrality and the Internet commons in the EU, said French citizens’ advocacy group La Quadrature du Net. BEUC-The European Consumer Organisation said MEPs heard consumers “loud and clear” in tackling roaming fees, the “hydra of EU regulation,” and building a net neutrality buffer against granting control over Internet traffic speeds and access to “Europe’s handful of network operators.” The telecom and digital technology sectors said the net neutrality provisions could reduce consumer choice and hurt competitiveness. Amendments mandating the complete separation of specialized services and requiring that they not have any influence on capacity available for other Internet services are concerning, said the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association. The text approved would place far-reaching restrictions on traffic management, making efficient network management nearly impossible, it said. The European Parliament’s stance on net neutrality is too specific about how networks should function, and it will quickly become obsolete as innovation drives the technology forward, said DigitalEurope. The question now is whether operators feel they can work within the scope of the regulation to offer the services they plan to, but a last-minute lobbying effort to remove some of the wording of what constitutes such services suggest not, said Ovum analyst Matthew Howett. “The fear exists around whether even basic (and generally accepted) forms of traffic management will be permissible” under the EC’s vision for an open Internet, he said. The telecom package now needs approval from EU members. The EC expects final agreement by year’s end, said Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes.

Spectrum purchased in Canada’s 700 MHz auction means subscribers will be able to more easily stream hockey game telecasts on their devices, Rogers said Thursday in a news release. Rogers bought two 12 MHz blocks of spectrum covering almost all of Canada, the carrier said. “We went into this auction with a clear plan to win the best spectrum for our customers,” said CEO Guy Laurence. “There is clear demand for the ultimate video experience and it will be a big part of how we bring the NHL to hockey fans."

ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré urged delegates at the World Telecommunication Development Conference Sunday to develop a plan for the ITU’s development sector that will ensure wider broadband deployment, which he said in a prepared version of the speech would help countries “quickly accelerate sustainable social and economic progress” (http://bit.ly/1fghUXL). The WTDC, scheduled to run through April 10 in Dubai, will also include proposals on cybersecurity, spam, emergency disaster relief and telecom access equality. U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy Daniel Sepulveda is leading the U.S. delegation, which includes more than 60 federal government and private sector representatives, the State Department said. It said the U.S. views the WTDC as “an opportunity to create priorities and programs that address developing countries’ information and communication technology needs in an effort to close the global digital divide” (http://1.usa.gov/1rZwicv).

Europeans face a “geographic lottery” on broadband prices, speed and range of choices, said the European Commission Tuesday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1iwVPEN). Four studies found no pattern or coherence in EU broadband markets, said the EC. Consumers are also baffled by the varying information operators provide, which limits their ability to choose the right services for them, it said. Prices for the most common broadband connections can be as much as four times higher in some EU countries, even when purchasing power is taken into account, the EC said. Sixty-six percent of people don’t know what Internet speed they've signed up for, and on average, they get only 75 percent of the speed they subscribe to, it said. Successive waves of telecom sector reform have helped change the way services are delivered in the EU, but the industry still runs largely on the basis of 28 national markets, the EC said. The European Parliament votes next week on EC plans for a connected continent, which will give consumers more transparency, rights and services, it said. The EC has a new portal for broadband-related information (http://bit.ly/1iwW7ve).

Europe needs its own trusted cloud, said the European Cloud Partnership steering board in a Friday policy paper (http://bit.ly/1oF6LTh). Cloud computing has the potential to help European citizens, businesses and public administrations save money, boost efficiency, improve security and speed innovation, it said. The cloud’s expected cumulative economic effect in 2010-2015 in the five largest European economies is around 763 billion euros ($1 trillion), and with the right policies in place, the cloud could generate around 1 trillion euros in GDP by 2020, it said. But Europe lags behind other regions in cloud computing take-up because of the recent revelations about intelligence services’ surveillance, a lack of regulatory consistency and technologically conservative policies, it said. The group proposed two categories of actions to spur cloud computing services in Europe: (1) A flexible common framework of best practices at the legal, technical and operational level. Cloud providers could then adopt the framework voluntarily to show their services comply with it and buyers of cloud services could more easily check whether an offering complies with their requirements of their use case. (2) Systematic consensus-building by all stakeholders via public consultations, workshops, coordination groups and so on. This would arrive at a common understanding on issues such as risk management, security requirements, privacy needs, enforcement methods, procurement practices and the need, if any, for legislative reform. The European Commission wants feedback on the policy proposal by May 2 (http://bit.ly/1diB2G1).

U.K. mobile operators EE, O2, Three and Vodafone teamed up with the Information Commissioner’s Office to fight spam text messages, the GSM Association said Thursday. They're using GSMA’s spam reporting service, which provides a worldwide clearinghouse of messaging threats and misuses, the association said. The service lets operators analyze spam attack patterns, and identify and shut down their sources, it said. Mobile users in Britain can report nuisance text messages by sending “7726” and “SPAM” to their service providers. Operators can share intelligence about spam attacks in real time, GSMA said. As a next step, the operators and ICO are considering ways to broaden the reporting service to address nuisance calls, it said. The Digital Marketing Association applauded the initiative, saying text spam and nuisance calls annoy millions of people and hurt the legitimate mobile marketing industry.

Net neutrality provisions green-lighted Tuesday by the European Parliament Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) Committee are better than those proposed by the European Commission (CD Sept 12 p5), but still contain “dangerous loopholes,” said French citizens’ advocacy group La Quadrature du Net. The provisions are part of a broad “connected continent” reform package aimed at creating an EU single telecom market. ITRE’s response to the EC proposal inserted strict rules to prevent telcos from degrading or blocking Internet connections to rivals’ services and applications, the committee said. Companies will still be able to offer specialized services of higher quality, such as VOD and business-critical, data-intensive cloud applications, as long as they don’t interfere with Internet speeds promised to other customers, ITRE said. Blocking or slowing the Internet would be allowed only in exceptional cases such as when specifically ordered by a court, it said. But La Quadrature Legal and Policy Analyst Miriam Artino said the vote “is a sign of the massive lobbying influence of big telecom operators.” The loopholes involve discrimination, the Internet’s open character and the definition of specialized services, wrote telecom consultant Innocenzo Genna on his blog (http://bit.ly/PLVEvZ). Genna said his clients include new entrants such as mobile virtual network operators, small ISPs and other non-incumbents. Under the ITRE version, telcos can still discriminate against online services by simply charging or differentiating the price of connectivity to favor one service over another, he said. That issue was present in the EC’s original proposal and hasn’t been addressed, he said. ISPs would still be allowed to establish a two-tier environment: A discounted Tier-1 Internet with selected services, and a pricier Tier-2 with all the rest, he said. To avoid the problem, the draft regulation should clearly state that ISPs can’t charge different prices for Internet access unless there are objective justifications such as quality, not just commercial deals between the ISP and a few online providers, Genna said. A second problem is that the ITRE version doesn’t describe what the “open Internet” is, he said. It should mean that ISPs can’t in any way control which online offerings their subscribers choose and how, he said. Not only should blocking, throttling and bandwidth limitation be banned, but the principle should cover any potential instrument an ISP could use to control user choice, Genna said. Lawmakers made some improvement in the EC definition of specialized services but it still leaves room for ISPs to market as such services products and offerings that are normally accessible on the open Internet, he said. The loopholes will have to be closed when the draft measure goes to plenary vote April 3, Artino said. The many Parliament members (MEPs) who proposed constructive amendments at the committee stage now have the chance to introduce new ones across party lines to ensure that the “general interest prevails over the short-term commercial interests of the telecom industry,” she said. The draft’s gray areas may lead to its rejection in plenary, Genna said. Approving a measure that’s still potentially dangerous to net neutrality “could be a risk for many MEPs which will be soon into elections” in May, he wrote. One MEP also voiced concern about the single telecom package’s net neutrality provisions. It “lacks the necessary guarantees for net neutrality in order to protect consumers against abuse of power by internet service providers,” said Marietje Schaake, of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, and the Netherlands, in a written statement. Net neutrality has been “traded off against abolishing roaming costs,” a “nice message to campaign on,” she said. regressed on net neutrality, said BEUC-The European Consumer Organisation. Net neutrality is essential for consumers to avoid Internet fragmentation and stop operators from becoming economic gatekeepers by prioritizing their and their commercial partners’ content, said Director General Monique Goyens. By failing to set clear safeguards between “Internet access services” and “specialized services” such as DTV, Parliament has allowed telcos to take content off the Internet and sell it as a specialized service, she said. That inevitably reduces consumer choice and harms Internet innovation, Goyens said. ITRE members also voted to end mobile roaming charges within the EU by Dec. 15, 2015, but asked the EC for guidelines for exceptional cases where companies would be allowed to apply such charges. MEPs also approved amendments to make spectrum trading and leasing easier, ITRE said. Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes called the vote “great news” for the telecom sector. Also Tuesday, ITRE confirmed a deal with the EU Greek Presidency on a measure to make cross-border electronic deals and e-identification easier. The draft law requires EU countries to recognize each other’s electronic identification systems, the committee said. MEPs also endorsed a compromise with governments on draft legislation to make broadband infrastructure cheaper to build by enabling broadband companies to share plans and costs with other sectors such as gas and transport, the committee said. A plenary vote on all three pieces of legislation is set for April 3. Striking a deal on the telecom reform package with the European Council will be one of the next parliament’s first priorities after May elections, ITRE said. The council defines the general political direction and priorities of the European Union.

The U.S. and China drove patent-filing activity through the World Intellectual Property Organization to record levels last year, as the number of annual international patent applications surpassed the 200,000 mark for the first time, said WIPO. The number of 2013 filings under WIPO’s Patent and Cooperation Treaty (PCT) program reached 205,300, a 5.1 percent increase from 2012, WIPO said. The U.S. accounted for 56 percent of the PCT growth last year, and China 29 percent, it said Thursday. With 57,239 applications in 2013, the U.S. exceeded its previous filing peak of 54,046 applications in 2007, before the height of the global financial crisis, WIPO said. China surpassed Germany to become the third-largest user of the PCT system, with Japan in second place, it said. Panasonic, with 2,881 published PCT applications, overtook China’s ZTE as the largest filer in 2013, it said.

EU efforts to end mobile roaming charges could stifle competition, said a coalition of 14 alternative mobile network operators and mobile virtual network operators. European Commission officials and members of the European Parliament announced an end to the fees, and Parliament’s Industry, Research and Energy Committee will vote on a proposal Tuesday, it said. The operators, which said they have more than 35 million EU users, said Thursday that the rules in the proposed text could prevent pro-competitive providers from offering attractive “roam-like-at-home” packages to consumers and risks distorting the market in favor of the big operators and groups. The current text envisions the end of retail roaming fees by Dec. 15, 2015. The operators’ alliance, which includes the European Association of Full-Mobile Virtual Network Operators, said it’s “extremely concerned” that the language focuses only on the end “retail” roaming prices without ensuring a revision of the corresponding regulated “wholesale” roaming caps. The group also objected to language it said the EC could use as a Trojan horse to accept or promote roaming alliances between large operators to the potential detriment of smaller players. The coalition said it’s not against the abolition of roaming fees, but wholesale tariffs should be reviewed and further lowered. The GSM Association declined to comment on the coalition statement, saying it will respond to Tuesday’s committee vote.

EU efforts to end mobile roaming charges could stifle competition, said a coalition of 14 alternative mobile network operators and mobile virtual network operators Thursday. European Commission officials and members of the European Parliament announced an end to the fees, and Parliament’s Industry, Research and Energy Committee will vote on a proposal April 3, it said. The operators, which said they have more than 35 million EU users, said the proposed text could prevent pro-competitive providers from offering attractive “roam-like-at-home” packages to consumers and risks distorting the market in favor of the big operators and groups. The current text envisions the end of retail roaming fees by Dec. 15, 2015. The alliance, which includes the European Association of Full-Mobile Virtual Network Operators, said it’s “extremely concerned” that the language focuses only on the end “retail” roaming prices without ensuring a revision of the corresponding regulated “wholesale” roaming caps. The group also objected to language it said the EC could use as a Trojan horse to accept or promote roaming alliances between large operators to the potential detriment of smaller players. The coalition said it’s not against the abolition of roaming fees, but wholesale tariffs should be reviewed and further lowered.