The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted unanimously today to begin the process of crafting formal rules for "net neutrality," the principle that all content on the Internet should be equally accessible to all users, and that companies cannot discriminate or block one set of content in favor of another.

The Commission agreed at its monthly open meeting to publish a "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" that would solicit public comment on how best to create rules for ensuring net neutrality, while enabling Internet service providers and telecom networks to continue policing their systems for spam and illegal content.

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Source: cellular-news

Following the European Parliament and Council of Ministers' agreement, in July to modernise European legislation, new EU measures that allow the re-farming of the radio spectrum in the GSM band for new mobile services will foster stronger competition on Europe's telecoms market. The GSM Directive on the use of the radio spectrum will make it easier for operators to provide faster, pan-European services such as mobile internet alongside today's GSM services. They will also boost the roll-out of wireless broadband services.

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Source Europe's Information Society

Although the European Commission withdrew the regulatory intervention of transit services from the list of markets recommended for regulation, British regulator Ofcom have found that transit services provided at a lower network level still warrant ex-ante regulation. The lack of competitive conditions for the provision of such services, especially on routes with low volumes of traffic, therefore, will continue to be regulated.

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Source Europe's Information Society

The Ministry of Transport and Communications in Helsinki has pushed through a law that will force telecommunications providers to offer high speed internet connections to all of the country's 5.3 million citizens, making broadband internet access a legal right.

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Source Guardian

The High Court has found that Telecom (Telecom Corporation of New Zealand and Telecom New Zealand Limited) used its substantial market power to prevent and deter competition in markets involving high-speed data transmission. The Commerce Commission claimed that Telecom contravened section 36 of the Commerce Act, which prohibits firms with a substantial degree of market power from taking advantage of that power for an anti-competitive purpose.

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Source: Commerce Commission New Zealand

The Dominican Republic’s telecoms regulator, Instituto Dominicano de las Telecomunicaciones (Indotel), has said it has plans to roll out fixed line telecoms services to an additional 1,000 rural communities as part of an initiative aimed at providing broadband and home voice services to all towns with more than 300 inhabitants. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, the announcement comes just over a year after fixed line incumbent Codetel inked a deal with Indotel to undertake a rural connectivity project that will see investment of USD100 million.

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Source: TeleGeography

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is planning on changing the way the current mobile phone industry bills its customers. While the notion of per second billing is welcome by the country's 450 million mobile subscribers, it is a jarring note for the operators who may see their revenues falling by 15% as a result.

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Source The Economic Times

The European Commission has called on the Austrian telecoms regulator, Rundfunk und Telekom Regulierungs GmbH (RTR), to suspend the adoption of regulatory measures regarding the definition of the Austrian broadband access market. The Commission has doubts as to the compatibility of the provisions defining the Austrian wholesale broadband access market with EU law.

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Source Europe's Information Society

The European Commission decided to close infringement proceedings against Italy and Estonia as both countries now fully comply with EU TV advertising rules. For Italy, the Commission had concerns over: 3 minute teleshopping messages not being counted in advertising limits and confusing viewers; TV stations' own promotional spots were not covered by Italy's legal definition of advertising; inefficient sanctions for breaches of advertising rules.

The Commission also launched infringement proceedings against Estonia as TV channels were regularly breaking the EU's limit of 12 minutes of advertising per hour. The two countries were in breach of the EU's Television without Frontiers Directive, but have meanwhile adjusted their national legislation and practice to comply with European audiovisual rules.

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Source: Europe's Information Society

The European Commission decided to take Belgium to the European Court of Justice on "must-carry" rules (imposed on broadcasters in the bilingual region of Brussels-Capital) after it failed to address a final warning issued by the Commission in November 2008 (IP/08/699  ). In the Commission's view, the rules, which require cable and other network operators to carry radio and TV channels in the Brussels region, are not proportionate. At the same time, the Commission ended legal action taken against Germany on "must carry" rules. It also closed action against Sweden and the Netherlands on other telecoms issues.

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Source: Europe's Information Society

The European Commission has called on the Austrian telecoms regulator, Rundfunk und Telekom Regulierungs GmbH (RTR), to suspend the adoption of regulatory measures regarding the definition of the Austrian broadband access market, the so call bitstream access market. The Commission has serious doubts as to the compatibility of the provisions defining the Austrian wholesale broadband access market with EU law. In the notification submitted one month ago, RTR has provided insufficient evidence to support its finding that mobile broadband connections can be considered as substitutes to fixed line DSL and cable connections. The Commission also has doubts regarding the scope of RTR's wholesale market definition for bitstream access. The Commission has therefore asked RTR not to adopt the measure until the Commission has taken a final decision on RTR's proposal.

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Source: Europe's Information Society

The European Commission today endorsed the Irish regulator's (ComReg) proposal to lower the prices charged by Eircom, the incumbent telecoms operator, to its competitors for granting access to its network. From now on, Eircom will no longer charge competitors that use its lines for costs on lines they do not use. The proposed measures complement previous important steps towards facilitating investment in infrastructure and enhancing competition on the Irish broadband market.

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Source Europe's Information Society

It has been recommended by a legal adviser to Europe's highest court, that the Europe-wide law forcing mobile operators to cut the rates they charge for using a mobile phone abroad is upheld. Setting the tariff caps, Viviane Reding, the E.U.'s telecom commissioner, said the idea that consumers should pay more when they are travelling in Europe than in their home country goes against the principles of the European single market.

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Source Total Telecom

A British government proposal stated that it would allow U.K. authorities to suspend Internet access temporarily for Britons who repeatedly engage in copyright-infringing file sharing. This proposal was criticized by BT Group PLC, one of Britain's largest Internet service providers, on the grounds that the government proposal would undermine Britons' right to due process and drive up costs for consumers by requiring expensive network interventions on the part of Internet service providers.

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Source Total Telecom

Japan's Fair Trade Commission issued a cease-and-desist order to Qualcomm Inc., saying the supplier of semiconductor products for mobile phones used its market dominance to prevent Japanese handset manufacturers from asserting their intellectual-property rights.

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Source Total Telecom

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.

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Source: Europe's Information Society