[ NNSquad ] EU Telecom Prison package update!

In May the EU parliament sent the EU Telecoms Package to conciliation following a bunch of concerns but which focused on the '3-strikes' issues. There was some cause for celebration that internet users got to their MEPs and got the law pushed back. It was hoped the conciliation process between Parliament (elected), the Council (unelected) and Commission (unelected) would include re-opening the clauses 20.1.b and 21.3.b of the Universal Service Directive, which provide loopholes for service providers to prioritise data streams. To complete the Kafkaesque feel to this, these are called customer protection measures from a committee whose aim is to protect customers.

On Monday night 28/09 in Brussels the parties gathered to discuss the conciliation process and decided the remit should only focus on the 3-stikes measures. It looks more and more like Telecom lawyers, while harmonising the regulation of legacy services across Europe have managed to provide themselves some extra flexibility to define our internet experience as they see fit and slow the development of a world based on bit transfer. The scoping meeting for the conciliation process was behind closed doors on Monday night 28th. The level of transparency in this process is zero.
The EU Telecom Prison package is a Frankston nightmare of legacy telecom service definitions and standards harmonised across all of Europe. The promises of Universal Access to the internet are no where to be seen. There are no Internet principles declared, let alone supported. Our data connectivity is treated like an ancillary service. How can we even begin to build a UK or European Data Transport fabric, if our data connectivity has the legal status of an unfinished demo when compared with the legacy voice services? Any investment plan made will be subject to sustaining this industrial legacy in its current form. It is like saying, we must equip our armies for the cold war, before we equip them to do anything else.

EU Parliament could reject the whole EU Telecoms Package on the next reading, but the bureaucrats are keeping everything very tight. I am afraid it is a Telecom Prison of our own making and we are not even aware we are doing it. The contrast with the FCC and the open debate on the 5th principal could not be greater.

Removing those AT&T inspired clauses would mean we could carry on ignoring this edifice, but they will slow progress. All we can do is to keep pestering.

Update

Subsequent to this, I have written a note to Vivian Reding requesting she reconcile statements in her speech on OCt 1 where she stated EU package was good for neutrality and where she herself was the first line of defence for neutrality in Europe. I will copy any reply should it arrive.

Mike Kiely