Ryan Heath 4 Neelie Kroes

Neelie Kroes was surprised to read the comments at 2012 Mobile World Congress of Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao - and she has this to say in response:

“Message to Vittorio and Vodafone: I call your bluff, and indeed do not respond well to threats. I take the side of the Vodafone customer. And I remind everyone that we want to get the mobile sector more spectrum and a bigger market. A fair competition in roaming is a good exchange for those opportunities. Remember, if consumers lose their fear of using their smartphones and tablets when travelling across Europe, operators will benefit as well.”

Vodafone’s comments are here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/feb/27/vodafone-boss-moratorium-mobile-phone-regulation

Kroes’ speech from yesterday on Boosting Mobile Broadband, is here
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/12/124&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

In the speech she explained the mobile would play a very big role in future fast broadband in Europe, would support it with more spectrum and announced her support for the simplest way to reduce data roaming prices: a permanent solution known as “local break-out”, which allows users to choose the best offer like they would choose a WiFi network.  “Local break-out is the best answer for data users: it is a simple solution, a boost for competition and consumer confidence,” Kroes said

It’s been fascinating to read the very divergent coverage of the Commission’s decision to refer ACTA text to the European Court of Justice. This seems the wisest course of action given the concerns raised about people’s freedoms.

The Commission decision to do this was both consensual and discussed in advance. Anyone suggesting otherwise is either not in possession of the facts or is misrepresenting them.

The full remarks of the EU Trade Commissioner (Karel de Gucht) are here 

Neelie has just blogged about her reaction to the White House’s support for a Do Not Track standard for web privacy.

This standard has been a long-held goal of Kroes and the Commission, backed through workshops and discussions for more than a year.  Good to see this movement from the States.

Blog is here

A frequent question I get is “what are the latest EU broadband statistics?”.

We tend to get updates twice a year, and in order make sure the statistics are solid, and not just PR puff, it takes about six months for full verification, which is why we don’t have minute by minute statistics on this sort of thing.

All the latest figures are here: http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/digital-agenda/scoreboard/docs/pillar/cocom_broadband_july_2011.pdf

And also many statistics in graphical form here in 2011 digital scoreboard: http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/digital-agenda/scoreboard/index_en.htm

A one line summary would be – doing very well on basic and mobile broadband, but progress on very fast fibre broadband is moving more slowly. We almost have 100% broadband coverage in Europe now.