Europe is suffering on the fast broadband front, the European Commission said Wednesday. Its latest digital agenda scoreboard (http://bit.ly/17GPcwy) said Europeans have basic digital networks and services, but they're missing out on current and future benefits of the digital revolution because of problems in the telecom and wider digital markets. Basic broadband is virtually everywhere in Europe, with satellite coverage bringing services to the 4.5 percent of the population not covered by basic fixed broadband, it said. Broadband at speeds of 30 Mbps or higher reaches 54 percent of the population, and Internet access is increasingly going mobile, it said. But only 2 percent of homes have ultrafast (above 100 Mbps) broadband subscriptions, far from the EU target of 50 percent by 2020, the report said. Moreover, half of EU citizens have few or no computer skills, it said. Twenty-two percent of Europeans have never tried the Internet at all, a number that’s declining slowly, but 70 percent now go online regularly, it said. E-commerce is growing steadily, but not cross-border, it said. Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes warned that the EU “can’t get stuck playing yesterday’s game.” The report said the chief problem is lack of investment in very fast networks and a continued lack of a real telecommunications single market. The EC plans to unveil proposals later this year to create a single telecom market, it said.

The Senate Commerce Committee scheduled a hearing on the nomination of Tom Wheeler for FCC chairman for 2:30 p.m. June 18 in 253 Russell. The Republican nominee to replace former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell hasn’t been announced. A spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., did not comment.

Silver Star telco seeks review of an FCC Wireline Bureau decision denying the telco’s request to correct inaccurate data about road miles and road crossings (http://bit.ly/11tJTbf). The bureau “failed to give serious consideration to the showing made by Silver Star of the significant errors in the ESRI Street Map road and road crossing data for its study areas,” the telco said in its application for review. The data are used in the quantile regression analysis model to determine the amount of high cost loop support a company is entitled to.

A pair of House lawmakers reintroduced the Wireless Tax Fairness Act (HR-2309) Tuesday, aimed at stopping new fees and taxes on consumer wireless bills. The measure, introduced by Reps. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., and Trent Franks, R-Ariz., would place a five-year moratorium on new state and local taxes for wireless. CTIA President Steve Largent hailed the legislation and sought quick passage of the bill, according to a news release: “The Wireless Tax Fairness Act must be passed as quickly as possible to protect wireless consumers from any new and discriminating taxes and fees.”

The FCC said in a public notice Tuesday (http://bit.ly/14U3S4O) that 911 call centers now can report outage information and related problems to an FCC email address. The email address is ready to receive reports starting Tuesday and is psapreport@fcc.gov. Public safety answering points “that choose to report information to the FCC by email are encouraged to include contact information, a description of the nature of the outage, and a description of any assistance requested,” the FCC said.

Tom Wheeler, nominated by President Barack Obama as the next chairman of the FCC, hasn’t resigned from the commission’s Technological Advisory Council, but won’t attend TAC meetings while his nomination is pending, an FCC official said Tuesday. Wheeler has been chairman of the group since it was reconstituted under then-Chairman Julius Genachowski in 2010, a post which gave him a chance to work on issues from the IP transition to receiver standards as a private citizen. TAC is slated to meet Thursday at 1 p.m. at FCC headquarters, its first meeting since Wheeler was picked by the White House to replace Genachowski. TAC last met in March when the focus was on the resilience of communications systems following disasters (CD March 12 p1).

The FCC Media Bureau granted Charter’s petition for an effective competition determination in the Hollis, N.H., community. The community is served by DirecTV and Dish Network, which are unaffiliated with Charter or each other, the bureau said in a memorandum opinion and order (http://bit.ly/1a1BaVm). Charter provided sufficient evidence to support its assertion that potential customers in the community “are reasonably aware that they may purchase the service of these MVPD providers,” it said.

Cable franchise areas in the Minnesota counties of Ramsey and Washington urged the FCC to deny or defer Comcast’s petition that it is subject to effective competition and thus should be freed from local rate regulation. Cable systems are presumed not to be subject to effective competition “unless and until the commission makes an affirmative finding that there is effective competition in response to a petition for special relief,” Ramsey-Washington Counties Suburban Cable Communications Commission said in its opposition to Comcast’s petition for special relief (http://bit.ly/109MQUm). The data that Comcast uses to show it has satisfied the effective competition test “has long been criticized as unreliable,” it said. As DBS penetration hasn’t proven to be an accurate indicator of competitive pressure sufficient to constrain prices in cable franchise areas, it would be consistent “with the weight of the evidence, congressional intent, the public interest and reasoned decision making for the commission to adjust its effective competition policy in light of market realities,” it said.

Mexico’s Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones (Ifetel), a new federal telecom regulatory agency that will replace Cofetel, will likely lead to regulations forcing “dominant phone and television companies to sell off assets and share network assets with smaller carriers in order to promote more competition,” Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche said Monday in an email to investors. Ifetel’s creation is part of a new law Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto signed Monday to drive economic growth. Ifetel will be created over the next three months, and will have 180 days to decide which telcos it considers “dominant.” Wells Fargo analysts recently met with NII Holdings, which provides iDEN-based wireless services under the Nextel brand name in Mexico, as well as Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru. Fritzsche said “we still do not know the tangible specifics as to the impact on the company’s financials, [but] we view any sort of pro-competition regulation in one of its key markets … as a longer term positive catalyst for the shares."

In a Tuesday letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller, Google asked for the ability to provide in its Transparency Reports more specific information about national security requests for user data, after press reports claimed the company “gives the U.S. government unfettered access to our users’ data” (http://bit.ly/16kzo). “Government nondisclosure obligations regarding the number of FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] national security requests that Google receives, as well as the number of accounts covered by those requests, fuel that speculation,” Chief Legal Officer David Drummond wrote. “We therefore ask you to help make it possible for Google to publish in our Transparency Report aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA disclosures -- in terms of both the number we receive and their scope."