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.

The U.K. leads the five largest EU economies on superfast broadband take-up and coverage, the U.K. Office of Communications said Wednesday. Its European broadband scorecard (http://xrl.us/bqpkgx) defined “superfast” broadband as fixed-line broadband technologies capable of providing speeds equal to or greater than 30 Mbps. The report compared coverage, take-up and usage, speed, price and choice. It found that availability of such broadband increased in the U.K. from about 60 percent at the end of 2011 to 73 percent, putting Britain in first place, ahead of France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Among those countries, the U.K. had the highest broadband take-up, of all types, by household, at 83 percent, Ofcom said. It also had the highest proportion of people who bought goods online (77 percent) and the highest weekly Internet usage (87 percent), it said. The U.K. also had the lowest proportion of people who have never used the Internet (8 percent). The findings are good news “but there is more to be done,” said Ofcom Chief Executive Ed Richards. The regulator wants wider availability of superfast broadband, and more progress on ensuring that consumers get consistently high quality of service, including faster line repairs and installations for broadband and telephony, he said.

App users believe that the applications environment is safer than browser-based Internet access, and pay little if any attention to requests for permission to, for example, use location data when downloading and using apps, a study for the U.K. Office of Communications found. The Kantar Media report done for Ofcom (http://xrl.us/bqozts) examined users’ attitudes and behaviors, the stated and observed impact of apps on their lives, and any concerns raised. It focused on people using smartphones, tablets, MP3 players and smart TVs, covering the Android, Apple iOS, Windows and BlackBerry smart device operating systems. The study found that users believe that official app stores monitor and vet the apps they make available, revealing an “almost universal trust” that well-known brands provide a safe, secure user experience. Apps were also deemed safer than browsers because they're more limited and contained, the report said. There was widespread lack of personal negative experience or awareness of significant problems with apps, it said. These perceptions led many app users to ignore permission requests from providers, it said. Very few participants raised spontaneous concerns about apps, but when prompted, parents said in-app purchasing and advertising were the biggest issue. Influenced, however, by the common perceptions about the apps environment, more parents were likely to allow children to use apps than to access browser content, it said. Parents universally agreed that parental control features were appealing, especially being able to restrict and limit the content of apps and narrow full access to app marketplaces, it said. The research was carried out via discussion groups, in-home family interviews and interviews with paired teenage friends.

The U.S. plans to initiate trade discussions with other countries in an effort to boost telecom equipment exports as a means to add American manufacturing jobs, said the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative 2014 trade agenda (http://1.usa.gov/1fGXWH5). “We will seek to negotiate and implement Telecommunications Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) with select countries to facilitate U.S. exports of telecommunications equipment,” said USTR Tuesday. The Obama administration also aims to conclude the World Trade Organization Information Technology Agreement (ITA) in 2014. The elimination of duties on modern information technology products through the ITA would boost U.S. technology exports, said USTR. The telecom industry approved of the prospects. “The President’s 2014 Trade Agenda demonstrates the Administration’s commitment to pursuing high-standard trade agreements that will open markets and level the playing field for the U.S. [information and communications technology] industry,” said Telecommunications Industry Association President Grant Seiffert in a news release (http://bit.ly/NU6lv0). “This will ultimately benefit the United States through economic growth, job creation, and enhancing America’s global competitiveness.” The administration is also prioritizing conclusion of Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations in 2014, said USTR. Administration officials had previously aimed to complete the deal by the end of 2013. The USTR said it also expects “significant progress” on free trade agreement negotiations toward the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the European Union during 2014. U.S. trade negotiators intend to use the Trans-Pacific Partnership, WTO and TTIP forums to crack down on intellectual property infringements, said USTR. “We will use all appropriate trade policy tools to address key trade-related IP issues and resolve specific intellectual property rights [IPR] issues that undermine the rights of Americans,” said USTR. “We seek to actively combat global counterfeiting that both threatens American jobs and often endangers the health and safety of global consumers. The United States will continue to use the ‘Special 301’ process and annual report to Congress both to drive continued improvements to the IPR protection and enforcement system and to spotlight challenges."

Ideal data security would combine the U.S.’s strong enforcement efforts with the EU’s legislative efforts, said Jacob Kohnstamm, chairman of the Dutch Data Protection Authority, at a Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) event Wednesday. Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, president of France’s data privacy regulatory agency Commission Nationale de L'Informatique et des Libertés, acknowledged the benefit of industry-set codes of conduct but said governments should set the codes’ “level of demands.” Washington University School of Law professor Neil Richards cited his forthcoming paper in Intellectual Privacy (http://bit.ly/MUFzSP), in which he says, “Despite calls from industry groups and a few isolated academics that [information privacy laws] somehow menace free public debate, the vast majority of information privacy law is constitutional under ordinary settled understandings of the First Amendment.” FPF is an industry-backed privacy advocate group supported by companies including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon; data brokers such as Acxiom and retailers such as Walmart.

Voting on the proposed EU single telecom market package was postponed Monday evening in the European Parliament Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) Committee, but could still see plenary action April 11, a European Commission spokeswoman told us. The problem was not having compromise amendments available in all languages, she said. Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a statement Monday that she’s “confident that this postponement will not distract the ITRE Members from their vote on this important proposal.” Kroes will offer whatever support she can to the Parliament members involved, said the EC spokeswoman. Kroes and her staff “stand ready to help support the Greek Presidency when they begin work on the text next month,” the spokeswoman said. The Wall Street Journal and others reported that some ITRE members welcomed the postponement because it gave them more time to address issues arising from the measure’s net neutrality provisions. The anti-net neutrality lobby doesn’t need breathing space, said European Digital Rights Executive Director Joe McNamee. Having gotten everything they want from the EC and Parliament’s lead rapporteur on the package, “they are worried about protecting their position,” he said. The proposal doesn’t have effective net neutrality provisions, he said. The issue of whether companies should be allowed to offer “specialized services” as long as they don’t interfere with Internet speeds promised to other customers is a major bone of contention in the net neutrality debate (CD Nov 29 p12).

EU lawmakers and governments agreed on draft legislation designed to make broadband infrastructure cheaper to build, said the European Parliament Industry and Energy Committee (ITRE) Tuesday. Committee negotiators want to allow broadband providers to share plans and expenses with companies in sectors such as transport, gas and sewage, and also proposed a voluntary “broadband-ready” label for houses, ITRE said. Broadband companies would have the right to access “promptly,” through a single information point, information about the location, route, size, type and current use, owner’s name and a contact for existing infrastructure, it said. Similar information would also be available about infrastructure work already under way. All newly built public and multi-dwelling buildings should be equipped with in-house broadband infrastructure ready for broadband connection, as should those undergoing major renovation, it said. The full committee is expected to vote on the deal March 18 before an April 11 plenary vote.

Leaders of the global push to establish 5G should agree on the technology and a roll-out timetable by the end of 2015, European Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes said Monday at the GSM Association mobile world summit in Barcelona. The new technology will bring “exponential” change and is the “key to a new paradigm, to a connected society, to the Internet of Things,” Kroes’ written remarks said. Among other things, 5G enables e-health services such as remote surgery and the ability to use new apps even in crowded places, said an EC memo (bit.ly/Nrm3x). Last year, the EC put 700 million euros ($960 million) on the table to jump-start European research, and the telecom sector responded with more more 3 billion euros, she said. Other countries, such as South Korea, are also putting up funding for 5G research, she said. Global cooperation and convergence is needed to make 5G ubiquitous and interoperable, she said. But Kroes said 5G “does not mean that we can do without 4G.” The newer technology won’t be deployed on a large-scale basis for many years, and it needs 4G and 3G to get there, as well as 2G networks and Wi-Fi, she said. In 2013, 5G was a topic only at conferences, but now it’s happening in the lab, she said, and Europe should lead the way.

Fiber-to-the-home/building (FTTH/B) is the leading global high-speed broadband solution, but regional uptake varies widely, IDATE analysts said Wednesday at an FTTH conference in Stockholm. IDATE’s world FTTx database provides data on the high-speed broadband market that covers more than 70 countries and 150 key players, said the firm, which is part of an institute that says it’s backed by “nearly 40 major players in the digital economy.” Revenue is expected to grow 95 percent over the next five years, to 182 billion euros ($250 billion) in 2017, said lead analyst Valérie Chaillou in a news release. Eastern Europe’s ultra-fast broadband subscriptions uptake rate will rise from 28 percent to 49 percent in the five years, much higher than in Western Europe, IDATE said. FTTH/B is clearly the technology of choice in the Asia-Pacific region, while fiber-to-the-last-amplifier leads in Western Europe and North America, it said. VDSL is, however, the technology of choice for some European incumbents, and Latin America and Middle East countries are just beginning their next-generation access network rollouts, it said. Some major European telcos still question the need for investing in FTTH/B, and some are “betting on the future capacities of copperbased networks,” it said. Six Asian and four American telcos make up the world’s top 10 FTTH operators, IDATE said. FTTH/B is gathering speed in Europe, with the total number of fiber subscribers growing by 29 percent in 2103, said the FTTH Council Europe. Thirteen EU countries have experienced subscriber growth of more than 30 percent, including Spain, the Netherlands, France and Portugal, it said. The region’s leaders, however, are France and Sweden, each with more than 1.2 million FTTH/B subscribers. Russia “remains a heavyweight” with around 9 million subscribers, it said. Outside Europe, China and Japan “are the unmatched world leaders,” it said. The numbers may sound impressive, but there’s still a long way to go, the council said. A country only reaches “fiber maturity” when 20 percent of its households are FTTH/B subscribers, and so far, only nine countries have reached that point, it said. The United Arab Emirates led the global FTTH rankings, it said. Germany and the U.K. have less than 1 percent penetration, “and once again conspicuously failed to qualify” for the ranking, the council said. “We need to do more and I can’t help but feel that some policy makers underestimate the danger of not getting to fibre to the home networks quickly enough,” said FTTH Council Europe President Karin Ahl in a news release. Within the next 30 years, Ahl said 70 percent of the economy “is likely to be driven by firms and products we know nothing about today."

The FCC is among federal agencies preparing a draft agreement for Customs and Border Protection that would protect import and export data shared through the International Trade Data System (ITDS), said a recent report on the coming ITDS (http://1.usa.gov/1fwD0yN). President Barack Obama issued an executive order Wednesday establishing Dec. 31, 2016, as the deadline for the completion of the ITDS. The database will simplify the filing of cargo import and export information required by numerous agencies, said the White House. Obama’s order said it’s (http://1.usa.gov/1bLZDlX) meant to propel necessary data sharing agreements among the agencies, including the FCC. “Independent agencies are strongly encouraged to comply with the requirements of this order,” said the White House said.