EU asks Google to delay consolidation of privacy policy (Europe, USA)

On 02.08.12, In Mobile, By Editor

GoogleEuropean regulatory group, Article 29 Working Party, has reportedly asked internet search engine Google, to postpone its plan to consolidate its privacy policy in a letter addressed to Larry Page, CEO, Google. According to reports, Google had announced that it plans to consolidate over 60 privacy policies into one universal policy that will govern its entire product range.

Google planned to launch the new policy from 1 March 2012; however, the regulatory group has reportedly asked the internet giant to pause its changed policy in order to ensure that there can be no misunderstanding about Google’s commitments to information rights of their users and EU citizens.

In response, Google claimed that they will continue with the scheduled date as they have maintained that there will be no changes in the privacy policy. Further, the firm also said that they had briefed most of the members of the working party in the weeks leading up to the announcement and none of them expressed substantial concerns at the time.

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Cosmote Romania launches three new data roaming add-ons

On 03.30.11, In Mobile, By Editor

Cosmote Romania has launched three new postpaid data roaming add-ons.

The offer is available for Cosmote Romania subscribers who travel to EU countries, Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland (countries included in the operator’s ‘Group 1′ corresponding to its ‘Roaming Avantaj’ tariff scheme).

Dubbed ‘Roaming Internet,’ the add-ons can be acquired on top of existing data subscriptions. Three ‘Roaming Internet’ add-ons are available, namely 25 MB, 50 MB, and 100 MB for US$14.09 (VAT excluded), US$21.13 or US$35.22 per week. Over-the-limit traffic is charged with US$2.81 per MB.

 

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Telefonica O2 Czech Republic slashes data roaming rates

On 03.29.11, In Mobile, By Editor

Telefonica O2 Czech Republic has slashed its rates for data abroad and reduced the package Eurodata 250 MB.

The price decrease to US$27.65 is valid from  April 1st to September 30th. The package can be activated by new and existing customers of postpaid services. O2 lowered also basic rates.

When travelling within the EU, 1 MB costs US$1.38, which is claimed to be the most beneficial offer in the market.

In the European non-EU countries, 1 MB was reduced to US$13.82 and in other countries of the world to US$17.28.

 

 

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Dutch ministry begins consultation on Telecom Act changes

On 03.23.11, In Mobile, By Editor

The Dutch ministry of economic affairs has initiated an internet consultation on the draft decision amending parts of the Telecommunications Act. The amendments will be made in association with the implementation of changes in the European regulatory framework for electronic communications (NRF).

Amendments are made necessary as a result of revised directives, specifically in the area of interoperability, peripheral devices and radio equipment, universal service and end-user interests, compensation under the Telecommunications Act and conditional access.

The main changes include:

1. The Interoperability Decision, concerning access and use of numbers within the EU;
2. The Decision covering universal service and end-user interests, concerning the planning of a number of services to ensure equal access for disabled users, requirements over the quality and affordability of such services, and how to share out reimbursement of specific services


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Roaming charges for calls between Finland and Russia to drop

On 03.18.11, In Mobile, By Editor

­Finnish Minister of Communications, Suvi Lind©n and Russian Minister for Communications and Mass Media, Igor Shchegolev have hit a policy agreement on roaming charges between the two countries.

Business delegations involved in the negotiations discussed the implementation timetable and pricing schedule for roaming charges. Mobile telecommunications operators have been ordered to agree on these details by the 1st May. The roaming charge specified by the EU has been set as the reference pricing level.

According to minister Lind©n, the result of these negotiations is a major step forward for co-operation between their countries and proof that similar forms of co-operation can be used in many different areas. The price reductions will very apparent in the phone bills for all Finns and Russians using telephone or data services while travelling in either country.

The Finnish delegation is comprised of mobile telecommunications operator and equipment manufacturer representatives. The Russian delegation includes three executives from a major telecommunications company.

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French, Spanish government sued over ‘telecoms taxes’ (Europe)

On 03.15.11, In Mobile, By Editor

­The European Commission has announced that it has decided to refer France and Spain to the EU’s Court of Justice because they continue to impose specific charges on the turnover of telecoms operators in breach of EU law. The charges in France and Spain were introduced to compensate for the loss of revenue from paid advertising on public TV channels.

The Commission thinks the ‘telecoms taxes’ in France and Spain to be incompatible with EU telecoms rules, which require specific charges on telecoms operators to be directly related to covering the costs of regulating the telecoms sector. The Commission requested the French and Spanish authorities in October 2010 to put an end to these ‘telecoms taxes’, but they are still in place.

France

The French charge on telecoms operators was introduced in March 2009 after the decision was taken by the French Government to end paid advertising on public TV channels. This charge is imposed on telecoms operators authorized to provide services in France. They pay 0.9% of their total revenues exceeding US$6.99 million received from subscribers. The annual revenue from the new charge, which has been paid to the French Treasury, is estimated at US$599.72 million. Operators are subject to the tax having been paying it in monthly installments since its introduction.

Spain

A law on financing the Spanish public broadcaster RTVE entered into force in September 2009 and imposed a charge of 0.9% on the gross revenues of telecoms operators to make up for the loss of revenue from paid advertising this broadcaster. In October 2010, telecoms operators made the first payments to CMT, the national telecoms regulator. The charge was expected to generate revenue of around US$321.83 million in 2010.

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Hungary, Spain to implement GSM Directive in full

On 03.15.11, In Mobile, By Editor

­The European Commission has formally requested Hungary and Spain to comply in full with the EU’s updated GSM Directive by ensuring that the 900MHz frequency band can be used for 3G services. Member of States had agreed to implement the amended GSM Directive into national law by 9th May 2010

The requests to Hungary and Spain are in the form of reasoned opinions under EU infringement procedures. If Hungary and/or Spain fail to inform the Commission of measures taken to comply with their obligations under the amended GSM within two months, the Commission could decide to refer them to the Court of Justice and request the Court to impose financial penalties.

Hungary and Spain have not yet adopted or notified the Commission of national measures. As a result, mobile telecoms operators in these countries are potentially denied access to radio frequencies in the 900 MHz band for UMTS services and customers are potentially denied access to high-speed mobile internet services. The Commission has, therefore, today decided to formally request these countries to take appropriate measures within two months to implement the updated GSM Directive in full.

The European Commission will continue to monitor the effective implementation of the GSM Directive in all EU countries to ensure that GSM spectrum bands are made available for 3G technology, taking into account any potential competitive distortions that could occur.

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Vodafone to invest $699.25 mn in Romania

On 03.05.11, In Mobile, By Editor

Vodafone Group CEO, Vittorio Colao has announced that the company is planning to invest over $699.25 million in Romania in the next five years at a meet.

Vodafone Romania officials stated that the meeting’s subject was the evolution of the telecommunications sector in Romania and its prospects. Among the projects, the aforementioned investments will go into a concerning network operation centres that will provide technical services to both Vodafone Romania as well as Vodafone units in other countries.

Vodafone has also shown its interest into a future collaboration for the use of US$117.47 million in EU funds for the expansion of its broadband internet infrastructure in areas that lack broadband connectivity in Romania, the so-called white areas.

 

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European consumers still cautious of high roaming costs

On 02.09.11, In Mobile, By Editor

EU roaming regulation is having little impact on consumers’ mobile usage habits while abroad, according to a survey. Although 56% of respondents with a mobile phone stated that they were aware of the rules regarding roaming, 77% of them claimed that it had made no difference to how they used their mobile phone when traveling abroad.

Although there is  introduction of legislation specifically designed to lower the cost of using a mobile phone within the EU, roaming charges appear to continue to weigh heavily on consumers’ minds. More than one-third i.e. 38% of online respondents indicated that they did not use their mobile phone at all while they were abroad, with 54% of these identifying the cost of usage as a reason for this.

Inspite of this current reluctance,the mass-market uptake of sophisticated smartphone devices continues to grow and  there is a growing consumer desire to use mobile phones for social networking and micro-social blogging while abroad. Half of all online respondents with a mobile between the age of 18 and 34 said they would  like to access some form of data service when traveling abroad, while 62 percent of these highlighted cheaper roaming rates as the factor which would encourage them to do so.

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Promised market for NFC effectively commences in 2011 with commercial rolls

On 02.01.11, In Mobile, By Editor

The near field communication (NFC) market has moved from an innovator to an early adopter phase and from trial development to the first commercial roll out. The key driver for the market is the wide adoption of the NFC solution in mobile phones, as without massive number of NFC-enabled mobile phones in use; the market will not be able to realize its immense potential. Researchers anticipate that NFC-enabled mobile phones will reach 863 million units in 2015. At this time, NFC-enabled mobile phones will represent more than 53% of the overall market.

Researchers state that in 2015, NFC will clearly be the most-used solution for mobile payment. They expect that the total payment value for NFC globally to reach US$152.71 billion in 2015, while the NFC payment value in the EU is expected to reach US$57.50 billion. They forecast a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 118% between 2010 and 2015.

There are two possible business models for the NFC market; the first one is based on a memory rental model where the NFC application will rent the memory space used by its application and the second is a pure rental model coupled with extra cost per use where the application will pay a cost per year with a given number of actions. When this number of actions on the application such as update, patch, read and write is reached, extra costs are charged to the application provider.

Different secure elements for NFC methods have allowed different technology players in industries such as telecoms operators and electronic device manufacturers to establish their own payment infrastructure. This lack of harmonization has been an obvious restraint for the NFC industry.

For nearly a decade, the NFC solution has been facing political and commercial problems. Most industries involved in NFC trials did not want to share the substantial revenues generated by this solution. Illustrating this point was the commercial discussion between banks and network operators, neither of whom wanted to share revenues. At the beginning, each wanted to force the other to adopt their business model. At the end, after network operator acquisition of banks and financial company acquisition of network operators, they were forced to admit that cooperation was the best compromise.

The NFC market also has the potential to create revenues for the entire NFC ecosystem. Even if it seems that purely hardware – SIM card and NFC controller – revenues will decrease, the gain will still be really important.

However, most technology providers have been able to offer new services directly linked with NFC. Handset manufacturers, trusted service management system providers and marketing and commercial NFC service providers all stand to benefit.

Many marketing companies are already involved in the NFC ecosystem. This is a good signal because, in the past, marketing companies were involved in new technology roll-outs only when the transition occurred from purely trials to first commercial deployments.

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