IBLS Speaker's Corner : European Union

European Parliament Adopts New International Roaming Regulation

IBLS Editor — Tue, 29 May 2007 16:04:00 GMT

IBLS Contributor: Bart Goddyn, Goddyn Belgium, bart.goddyn@goddyn.eu, writes:

On 23 May 2007, the plenary session of the European Parliament voted, with a strong majority, for the adoption of a Regulation to reduce international roaming tariffs for mobile communication within the European Union. This Regulation is said to bring a new era in mobile communications with important benefits to consumers.

Rationales for a Regulation

In May 2005, the European Regulators’ Group (ERG) noted that international mobile roaming charges are too high without clear justification. Average retail prices for calls made whilst roaming are four times higher than the equivalent prices for domestic mobile calls. This difference does not reflect the cost incurred by the operators.

Roaming charges for consumers are neither transparent nor comprehensible. Initiatives to address this problem, such as the creation of websites showing roaming prices by regulatory authorities appear to be insufficient.

Roaming services are supplied in at least two Member States. This results in different national approaches to address the consumer prices. These differences bar the development of a single EU market for mobile telecommunication services.

Main Elements for the Regulation

The main elements for the Regulation relate to the cap of charges both among mobile operators and for consumers and to the transparency of these charges. The Regulation should also encourage competition below the price caps (also called “Eurotariff”).

The cap of wholesale charges relates to the charges that mobile phone operators charge each other for their roaming services. This cap takes as its starting point the tariffs for connecting mobile phone calls from other domestic networks. The cap of retail charges sets the maximum price limit at 130% of the average wholesale charge.

This would apply to calls made and received while roaming. Beneath these caps, operators would remain free to compete by offering cheaper roaming services, or packages differentiated according to customer demand.

The proposal also enhances transparency of roaming charges for consumers. Operators will therefore be required to provide and update consumers with readily comprehensible information (either by SMS or by means of a voice call) on applicable roaming charges.

Towards the Regulation

The Council of EU Telecom Ministers is expected to endorse the Regulation on 7 June 2007. The Regulation will then become directly applicable law in all 27 Member States following its publication in the Official Journal, expected by mid-June. The capped retail charges must be made available to customers one month later and will apply by default after a further two months. The wholesale cap will take affect two months after entry into force of the Regulation.

Should We Go To War Over A Massive Cyber-Attack?

Maricelle Ruiz — Mon, 21 May 2007 10:23:00 GMT

Estonia is doing it again. The tiny Eastern European nation – holder of the first Internet election – is pushing the boundaries to set another legal precedent. But this time around, a change in the law could entail serious international consequences.

It all started a few weeks ago. Weary of Russian attempts to reportedly meddle in its internal affairs, the former Soviet satellite state decided to relocate a Soviet war memorial from the center of its capital Tallinn to a cemetery. The action angered Russians living in Estonia and beyond. Among the actions taken against Estonia was a massive cyber-attack, lasting weeks, which Estonian public officials and business executives claim originated at the top levels of the Russian government.

Estonia may be small in territorial size, but when it comes to its former handlers, it’s ready to display a big attitude. The country’s top public officials went straight to the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to report the attacks, which disabled the sites of ministries and political parties, as well as of some of the largest newspapers, banks and businesses in the country.

“Attacking one member state means an attack against the entire European Union,” Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip alleged. “We have turned to the European Union and we ask them to take immediate action.”

Prime Minister Ansip and other Estonian public officials alluded to Article V of the NATO Treaty, which states that an attack on one of its members shall be considered an attack against all and enables these nations to exercise the right of self-defense recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations. Most EU member states – including Estonia – also belong to NATO.

Estonian Defense Minister Jaak Aaviksoo, meanwhile, discussed the situation with NATO officials and later stated the following during an interview with British newspaper The Guardian: “At present, NATO does not define cyber-attacks as a clear military action. This means that the provisions of Article V of the North Atlantic Treaty, or, in other words collective self-defense, will not automatically be extended to the attacked country. Not a single NATO defense minister would define a cyber-attack as a clear military action at present. However, this matter needs to be resolved in the near future.”

NATO cyber-terrorism experts have traveled to the country to assist Estonians in determining the source of the attack and boosting the country’s electronic defenses. The attack has been described as a distributed denial of service attack. A denial of service attack is defined as an attack against a computer or network that attempts to limit access to the Internet by flooding it with requests for a webpage or emails. A more sophisticated variant of this attack is said to be the distributed denial of service attack, where hackers rely on viruses to take over multiple computers to engage in the attack, thus increasing the amount of malicious traffic and decreasing the ability of the owners of the victim machine or network to defend themselves. In the Estonian case, the IT experts prevented foreign Internet addresses from accessing the sites under attack until the situation was under control.

The President of the European Council, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Commission President José Manuel Barroso, meanwhile, were scheduled to discuss the cyber-attack issue during a recent EU summit with Russia, which judging by their grave faces during the final press conference, did not seem to yield positive results. In the past, Russia and China have been linked to electronic espionage. Now, it may be wise to admit that governments must evaluate measures to effectively handle countries that decide to engage in this novel type of warfare.

Europe adopts legislation to expedite e-payments

Maricelle Ruiz — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 17:39:00 GMT

The European Union is in the process of integrating national payment systems to create a Single Euro Payments Area or SEPA. The initiative intends to facilitate electronic payments and services, such as direct debit and e-invoicing, throughout the EU and to protect consumers using this system. It also intends to bring into the system additional payment-service providers not only to foster competition and improve services to consumers, but also to comply with anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing standards.

The legal foundation for this initiative is the Payment Services Directive. The European Parliament, which recently approved the text for this Directive, has forwarded the document to the EU Council for final adoption. Member States must transpose said Directive into national law by November 1st 2009. The launching of the Single Euro Payments Area is scheduled for January 1st 2008 and expected to have reached a critical mass of users by the end of 2010.

The European Union battles another successful technology giant

Maricelle Ruiz — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 11:22:00 GMT

It’s a season of contrasts at Apple. A few days ago, the technology giant sold its 100 millionth iPod, making the iPod the fastest selling music player in history. And just like Microsoft, it also found itself in the middle of a European Union antitrust investigation.