The Dutch Presidency last week urged the European Union (EU) to rethink its information and communications technology (ICT) agenda, to catch up with world leaders. In what he called his “tentative and provocative” preface to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs Laurens Jan Brinkhorst said the EU’s recent enlargement to 25 member states is the right time to spur productivity and competitiveness in the ICT industry. The report looks at ICT growth in the U.S., Korea, India, China and Japan, which all outstrip Europe in creation and rollout of ICT. It proposes 10 “breakthroughs” for discussion at a high-level strategy meeting in late Sept., including: (1) Shift e-business and e-govt. policy from connectivity to uptake of complex ICT applications. (2) Make European ICT standards interoperable to foster e-authentication and electronic payments. (3) Speed the introduction of “disruptive” technologies such as smart tags and VoIP. (4) Realize the vision of “any content, anytime, anywhere, any platform,” through multiplatform access for content producers and new digital rights management systems. (5) Remove barriers to the development of an innovative European e-communications sector. (6) Make Europe’s spectrum allocation model more flexible. (7) Enforce spam and virus solutions and make cybercrime a priority, to give consumers confidence and security. The report notes that while the EU’s new electronic communications regulatory framework is a step in the right direction, it’s beginning to create problems that must be resolved. The law requires national telecom regulatory authorities (NRAs) to analyze various markets that may be suitable for ex ante regulation -- regulation without a showing of anticompetitive behavior. But those analyses require NRAs to make many decisions, all of which can be appealed in court, increasing the “regulatory risk” to industry. National assessments under the framework may lead to a patchwork of interpretations across Europe, another possible ground for appeal of an NRA’s decision, the report said. Market reviews for significant market power are taking longer than one year, which may be too long given how fast technology changes. Further, most Internet rules come from industry self-regulation, “and transparency to the stakeholders and fundamental user rights may be at risk,” analysts said. Finally, the report said, the framework calls for technological neutrality combined with competition between infrastructures. That principle, while valid, may not work for high-cost infrastructures such as fiber-to-the- home, the report said.
Exports to China
After initial success in the U.S., video on demand (VoD) is poised to “gain real traction” elsewhere, according to ABI Research. The firm said international VoD gains have begun appearing the past 6-9 months, and the process would have been quicker if it hadn’t been for the worldwide economic slowdown. Recent VoD deployments have been in China, Japan, Korea, Australia, Venezuela, the U.K. and several other European countries, ABI said. One problem, it said, is finding a price point that’s acceptable outside the U.S. -- www.abiresearch.com.
The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) is concerned that Korea will require mobile wireless broadband service providers to use the 802.16 standard to get access to up to 100 MHz of spectrum expected to open up in that country next year. The Korean govt. has said it will open up spectrum at 2.3 GHz next year and will begin licensing mobile wireless broadband services in that country. But it said as a condition for service, it would require use of the 802.16 standard. “While this is an improvement over initial plans to mandate an alternative indigenous Korean standard, this approach remains overly restrictive and will preclude many commercially proven U.S. technologies from accessing the Korean market,” a U.S. trade official told us. Another country of concern is Japan, officials said.
China Telecom said the Tibetan wireless network it launched in 2003 now reaches all 683 towns and villages in Tibet. China Telecom invested some $50 million to set up the network, which serves 17,800 households.
UBS is predicting that the wireless sector is the most likely of all telecom sectors to benefit from “even the smallest” improvements in Asian economies. UBS singled out Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, India and China as particularly poised for recovery.
A new broadcasting satellite for China Satcom will be built and launched by Alcatel Space, according to reports from Chinese news service Xinhuanet. Chinasat 9 will have 22 Ku-band transponders.
The House Commerce Consumer Protection Subcommittee asked Wed. whether radio frequency identification (RFID) tag technology would encroach on consumer privacy. While privacy advocates acknowledged the technology isn’t developed enough to track consumer purchases down to the last detail, they argued it will likely be refined and Congress should enact baseline privacy protections and information collection rules. In a written statement, House Commerce Committee Chmn. Barton (R-Tex.) said RFID will require careful “examination” of privacy effects, but overall, the technology promises “great benefits.” Subcommittee Chmn. Stearns (R- Fla.) said China was developing RFID technology and questioned whether the U.S. should take the forefront and develop the technology’s standards. Sanjay Sarma, Mass. Institute of Technology (MIT) assoc. prof.-mechanical engineering, said RFID tags have limited range and many don’t have battery power to transmit a signal. Linda Dillman, Wal- Mart Stores chief information officer, said RFID was mainly used for pallets and shipping crates and that only a few individual items were tagged, though more items would probably be tagged soon. She said the tags were used to address “merchandise availability” issues. Sandra Hughes, Procter & Gamble global privacy executive, said the technology was used mainly to track shortages in drugs. She said the tags aren’t used to collect personal information and the company was working to dispel this perception from the public. She said consumers should be informed about the tags and be allowed to destroy or discard the tags. John Molloy, managing dir.-ViaTrace, said the technology is effective in tracking livestock and isolating animals that may be sick. Paula Bruening, counsel for the Center for Democracy & Technology, said a full scale technology assessment of RFID needs to be performed, but meantime Congress should enact baseline privacy protections. Barry Steinhardt, American Civil Liberties Union dir.-technology & liberty program, said he was concerned about the adoption of the technology by the San Francisco library system.
ESPN and Vertex Communications & Technology Group signed a licensing agreement to publish a Chinese-language edition of ESPN The Magazine beginning later this year. The magazine will be published monthly and will be distributed in mainland China, including Beijing and Shanghai, as well as Hong Kong. The Chinese edition will include content targeted to the interests of sports fans in China, as well as material from the U.S. edition of the magazine. Coverage is expected to include international, European, and Chinese soccer; international and Asian basketball leagues, as well as the NBA; professional golf and other sports.
The Asia/Pacific region will show the most growth over 5 years in entertainment and media (EM), according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) forecast. Worldwide EM industry spending will increase at a 6.3% rate to $1.7 trillion in 2008, the forecast said but will grow 9.8% in Asia/Pacific, PWC said. China and India, with large populations and low media penetration, will lead Asia’s surge, PWC said. Govt. infrastructure investment in both countries has risen dramatically recently, and the 2 nations should see an increase of 96 million multichannel households, PWC said. PWC also predicted 20% compound annual worldwide growth for gaming. Increased broadband and wireless access will play a large role in fueling this growth, PWC said, with broadband up about 30% each year, and broadband penetration crossing the 300 million household mark in 2008. Gaming in Asia will represent the intersection of the 2 hottest EM growth sectors, up a predicted 23% a year through 2008. Internet advertising, which rebounded last year after a weak 2001- 2002, is the smallest of 6 ad media PWC tracks but will be the fastest-growing, the forecast said. Internet ad spending will increase 12.7% compounded annually to 2008, PWC said, to a projected $18.9 billion, propelled by paid search and rich media. Global advertising spending will increase at “a solid” 5.3% over the same period, PWC said, up to $412 billion from last year’s $318 billion. The U.S. will be the world’s largest EM market through 2008, PWC’s forecast said, despite growth rates smaller than Asia/Pacific, Latin America, Europe and even Canada. PWC said rapid growth in online gaming will help maintain U.S.’s sizeable EM market.
Analyst firm EMC said wireless subscriber numbers worldwide passed the 1.5 billion mark by the first week of June and should reach more than 2 billion by July 2006. EMC said the world will hit that point ahead of most projections. The number of subscribers in China, 257.3 million in Dec. 2003, will hit 547.3 million by the end of 2009, EMC said. The U.S. will see growth from 157.3 million to 223.9 million during the same period, and India is expected to rise to the 3rd place worldwide at 116.6 million subscribers.