Several operators in the United States of America have raised concerns on the insufficiency of spectrum to meet future demands, following a recent explosion in mobile data traffic. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is seeking comment on whether more spectrum is needed for wireless broadband services as it continues to develop the national broadband plan, and has thus launched a consultation in this regard.

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Source TeleGeography

Complaints by an alternate operator in Belgium lead to an investigation that has now resulted in the Belgian Competition Council (BCC) advising the regulator that the incumbent, Belgacom has in fact abused its dominant position in the country’s fixed line sector.

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Source TeleGeography

The demand for spectrum has been rising and if it exceeds availability, licenses for the frequency band 790MHz-862MHz will be assigned through an auction. Swedish telecoms regulator the Post & Telestyrelsen (PTS) has launched a public consultation on the assignment of this frequency band. The 800MHz band is suitable for wide-area coverage in sparsely populated areas and PTS is considering conditions that will require winners to provide coverage in areas where residents currently lack basic infrastructure for broadband access.

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Source TeleGeography

The Czech telecoms regulator, CTU, has notified regulatory measures for fixed call termination in the Czech Republic. Fixed call termination rates are the wholesale prices that fixed operators charge each other and other networks, such as mobile phone networks, for terminating calls to their own customers.

See Press Release
Source: Europe's Information Society

The French parliament yesterday, approved the internet piracy bill championed by President Nicolas Sarkozy and first lady Carla Bruni. One of the toughest ever drafted bills against the illegal downloading of media, it was opposed by consumer groups but was backed heavily by the music and film industry. Those found guilty can be handed down an internet ban by a judge or be fined up to EUR 300,000 ($415,000) or receive a two-year jail sentence.

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Source Total Telecom

The Italian telecoms regulator (AGCOM) proposes to remove regulatory obligations from the retail international fixed call markets for residential and business customers in Italy.
The Commission considered, already in 2007, that international calls no longer warranted regulatory intervention and accordingly withdrew theses markets from the list of markets recommended for regulation (IP/07/1678).

See Press Release
Source: Europe's Information Society

Canada's Supreme Court  dismissed an appeal by two main phone companies asking to reject an order by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission for BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. to distribute  funds to residential subscribers through a one-time tax credit or by lowering phone rates.

Source:  Total Telecom

See the decision Bell Canada v. Bell Aliant Regional Communications, 2009 SCC 40

Federal Communications Commission (FCC)  previously embraced four open Internet principles affirming that consumers must be able to access the lawful Internet content, applications, and services of their choice, and attach non-harmful devices to the network. Chairman Genachowski proposed the addition of two new principles. The first would prevent Internet access providers from discriminating against particular Internet content or applications, while allowing for reasonable network management. The second principle would ensure that Internet access providers are transparent about the network management practices they implement.

The FCC has created a new section on Open Internet.

Source: FCC

The European Commission (EC) has adopted guidelines on the application of state aid rules on public funding for broadband networks. It provides a framework for stakeholders and contains specific provisions for the deployment of Next Generation Access networks.

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Source Europe's Information Society

In efforts to boost competition in the UK telecommunication sector, Ofcom has removed one of the last remaining regulations in the retail fixed-line market; a move that was welcomed by the incumbent. This enables BT for the first time to offer discounted fixed-line calls as part of its bundles, which also include fixed broadband and its BT Vision IPTV service.

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Source Total Telecom

The European Commission, the European Union's regulatory arm created guidelines for state investments in broadband networks, suggesting public money should be limited to investments in underserved areas. They also said that investments in broadband networks should primarily be driven by private operators.

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Source Total Telecom

Axtel, Mexico's No.2 fixed-line carrier, having received a concession from the Communications and Transportation Ministry to provide satellite and pay TV services, announced on Tuesday that pay TV will be added to its current offering of phone and Internet services starting early next year.

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Source Total Telecom

The Australian government plans to split Telstra into a wholesale and retail unit. The reforms seek to streamline and simplify the competition regime and to remove regulatory red-tape. The government seeks to structurally separate Telstra on a voluntary and cooperative basis but will impose a strong functional separation framework on the carrier if it chooses not to cooperate.

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Source Telecompaper

Côte d’Ivoire proved itself as a potential hub, routing neighbouring countries’ traffic when a submarine fibre cable in Benin was damaged recently. However, what might have been a bright future, is now looking glum as Côte d’Ivoire’s Government has introduced a new tax that applies to all international incoming voice traffic. This includes direct traffic as well as transit traffic and roaming calls.

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Source Balancing Act

Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) seem to be the natural next step in service competition, particularly in those markets that are highly competitive. Although they seem to have taken root in South Africa, they are much less popular in other African countries. With it's ability to add business at minimum cost, Brussels based Effortel is looking at Africa for new MVNO growth.

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Source Balancing Act

Despite facing the horrific Mumbai attacks, India is still not geared up to track calls made using VoIP. Therefore, until India comes out with a mechanism to trace such calls, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) has requested that the service remains blocked in India.

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Source The Times of India

An initial review by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) of advertisements for mobile premium services across television, magazines, internet and other media, indicated potential problems with a majority of the ads despite previous efforts to safeguard subscribers from potential detriments caused by some industry practices. As a result the ACMA is further ramping up its campaign to eradicate unacceptable practice in the mobile premium services industry.

See Media Release
Source ACMA

Mobile termination rates in Slovakia are amongst the highest in Europe. Therefore, the European Commission has repeated its calls for the Slovakian telecoms regulator, Telekomunikaèný úrad Slovenskej republiky (TÚSR), to bring mobile termination rates to more competitive levels in Slovakia.

Further, the European Commission has, for a second time, asked the Czech telecoms regulator, Cesky telekomunikacni urad (CTU) to further reduce mobile termination rates (MTRs) in the Czech Republic.

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Source Europe's Information Society

Experiences from Telstra have confirmed that the handling of genuine calls to Australia's emergency service (000) is being increasingly compromised by the need to deal with non-genuine calls. Therefore, an initiative has been taken to block repeated calls from the same handset as a measure to efficiently deal with genuine emergencies.

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Source ACMA

It was alleged to the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) that sales agents for Irish ISP Eircom retail, could obtain the customer's Universal Account Number (UAN) from internal Eircom systems (thus avoiding the need for the consumer to provide this information). After investigations, remedial action was taken by Eircom and all issues have now been resolved.

See ComReg Information Notice
Source ComReg

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (SKMM) would like to remind the public that abuse on 999 Emergency Service is an offence under section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (CMA 1998) and if convicted, the offender can be fined up to RM50,000 or imprisoned for a term not exceeding one year or both. SKMM has to date prosecuted two cases in court and there are still 25 cases under investigation.

See Press Release
Source: Skmm Malaysia

Today, eCall, Europe's in-car automatic emergency call system, received the full backing of Europe's mobile phone industry. Representatives of the industry's GSM Association underlined their commitment to this life-saving technology by signing the EU's Memorandum of Understanding to implement eCall across Europe. eCall automatically dials   112, Europe's single emergency number  , when a car has a serious accident and sends its location to the nearest emergency service – even when passengers do not know or cannot say where they are. Rolling out eCall requires close cooperation between public authorities, car companies and mobile phone operators and could save up to 2,500 lives each year in the EU when fully deployed and reduce the severity of injuries by 10 to 15%.

See Press Release
Source: Europe's Information Society