GENEVA -- Administrations and operators in ITU-T are searching for new approaches to satisfy heavy numbering and addressing demands for machine-to-machine communications, which may strain national numbering resources. M2M applications have increased rapidly in recent years, said a draft report by the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations that defines them as automated data communication between two or more entities.
There are no problems with net neutrality in Europe and no regulation is needed, most stakeholders told a European Commission consultation on preserving an open Internet. Comments from 318 parties, including the Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications (BEREC), operators, ISPs, national authorities, consumer and civil-society organizations and individuals showed “near consensus” on the importance of keeping the Internet open but no widespread call for further EU legislation, the EC said Tuesday. Most believe that traffic management supports efficient operation of the Internet and doesn’t hurt consumers, it said. BEREC found cases in which equal treatment of data wasn’t ensured, and that could raise concerns for competition and society, the EC said. Although net neutrality hasn’t been discussed intensively in many countries, there have been instances of peer-to-peer file-share throttling and of blocking VoIP services or additional charges for them, it said. But these issues were resolved voluntarily and many respondents said future net neutrality problems are hard to predict, it said. Some content providers worried that today’s relatively open Internet could suffer if new market structures, such as charging parties other than the end-user, emerge, it said. But operators said those concerns aren’t justified, because competition and transparent measures to ensure consumer choice can prevent pitfalls, it said. BEREC foresaw three potential issues, the EC said: Discrimination with anti-competitive effects; longer-term consequences for the Internet economy affecting freedom of expression and innovation; and consumer confusion or harm from lack of transparency. In general, however, most believe that the EU telecom regulatory framework can deal with the issues, it said. Most commenters agreed that traffic management is essential for Internet operations but that it shouldn’t give preferential treatment to one service over another or allow deep packet inspection, which raises privacy and data protection issues. Many also said consumers should be given information about traffic management but transparency alone isn’t enough to relieve current and future net neutrality concerns. Respondents also agreed that traffic management principles should apply to fixed and mobile networks. They split on whether the same quality of service conditions should apply to all managed services but generally agreed that additional rules on such services aren’t needed. Many, including operators and some content providers, said regulation to set minimum QoS standards for Internet access would stifle innovation. Respondents had various ideas about how to determine minimum QoS standards, some warning that effective monitoring of QoS would be a tough task. The EC and European Parliament will discuss an upcoming EC report on net neutrality at a summit Thursday.
The leverage broadcasters enjoy in retransmission consent negotiations with pay-TV distributors comes from the popular content they have, not because of the FCC license that stations operate under, CBS Chief Financial Officer Joseph Iannello said Tuesday. His comments at a Wells Fargo conference came in reaction to assertions by an investor that broadcasters would have no leverage without their licenses. “I don’t need the FCC license to have the negotiation,” Iannello said. It’s no different from when a cable network negotiates with a distributor, he said. But if distributors “want to charge your customer and not pay us, that business model is gone."
On November 5, 2010, 12 trade associations1 sent a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative expressing their concern with the USTR’s opposition to a number of pending duty suspensions proposed for inclusion in the next Miscellaneous Tariff Bill.
There are no problems with net neutrality in Europe and no regulation is needed, most stakeholders told a European Commission consultation on preserving an open Internet. Comments from 318 parties, including the Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications (BEREC), operators, ISPs, national authorities, consumer and civil-society organizations and individuals showed “near consensus” on the importance of keeping the Internet open but no widespread call for further EU legislation, the EC said Tuesday. Most believe that traffic management supports efficient operation of the Internet and doesn’t hurt consumers, it said. BEREC found cases in which equal treatment of data wasn’t ensured, and that could raise concerns for competition and society, the EC said. Although net neutrality hasn’t been discussed intensively in many countries, there have been instances of peer-to-peer file-share throttling and of blocking VoIP services or additional charges for them, it said. But these issues were resolved voluntarily and many respondents said future net neutrality problems are hard to predict, it said. Some content providers worried that today’s relatively open Internet could suffer if new market structures, such as charging parties other than the end-user, emerge, it said. But operators said those concerns aren’t justified, because competition and transparent measures to ensure consumer choice can prevent pitfalls, it said. BEREC foresaw three potential issues, the EC said: Discrimination with anti-competitive effects; longer-term consequences for the Internet economy affecting freedom of expression and innovation; and consumer confusion or harm from lack of transparency. In general, however, most believe that the EU telecom regulatory framework can deal with the issues, it said. Most commenters agreed that traffic management is essential for Internet operations but that it shouldn’t give preferential treatment to one service over another or allow deep packet inspection, which raises privacy and data protection issues. Many also said consumers should be given information about traffic management but transparency alone isn’t enough to relieve current and future net neutrality concerns. Respondents also agreed that traffic management principles should apply to fixed and mobile networks. They split on whether the same quality of service conditions should apply to all managed services but generally agreed that additional rules on such services aren’t needed. Many, including operators and some content providers, said regulation to set minimum QoS standards for Internet access would stifle innovation. Respondents had various ideas about how to determine minimum QoS standards, some warning that effective monitoring of QoS would be a tough task. The EC and European Parliament will discuss an upcoming EC report on net neutrality at a summit Thursday.
This has been the “year of progress” for deployment of femtocells, low-power, wireless mini-base stations that provide short-range communications indoors, Femto Forum Chairman Simon Saunders said in an interview. The number of commercial services has probably tripled in the past year, with 17 running worldwide, he said. The technology is so useful that the forum is looking for ways to embed it in businesses, public spaces and, eventually outdoors for LTE services, he said. The momentum is expected to accelerate next year as multiple uses for femtocells launch, said Aditya Kaul, ABI Research practice director, mobile networks.
Despite common stands on issues such as net neutrality, the four top candidates to chair the House Commerce Committee chose different initiatives to sponsor or co-sponsor in the past three congressional sessions.
SAN FRANCISCO -- LightSquared’s satellite coverage will reach residents of remote areas that aren’t economical to serve with terrestrial networks, solving one of the main problems that gave rise to the National Broadband Plan, CEO Sanjiv Ahuja said Monday. And the company’s wholesale-only business will provide an alternative to the wireless industry’s “vertically integrated model” of carriers that, according to a presentation slide, has meant “inflated prices” and a “poor user experience,” he said at the Open Mobile Summit.
The federal government is making several efforts to overcome challenges to boosting risk management, workforce development and other aspects of cybersecurity, agency officials told federal workers Friday at the Cyber Security Readiness conference in Washington. The number of organizations housed under the Commerce Department and the lack of centralized resources are some of the challenges to supporting risk management and cybersecurity at the agency, said Simon Szykman, chief information officer for the department. The department plans to move from having a paper documentation-based method for systems certification and accreditation to “moving towards a more operational view,” he said. That involves situational awareness and continuous monitoring of network systems, he said. “We're working to update our entire risk management framework within the department to be a little more progressive in those types of ways.” The government’s effort to sharpen cybersecurity is hindered by “the lack of a common definition of what is included in cybersecurity versus what properly belongs elsewhere, and of a common model or taxonomy within which to frame our responses to problems,” said Jim Richberg, assistant deputy director of national cyber intelligence at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. “Authentication in cyberspace is another challenge,” he said. There are weak default credentials and “transactions that are inappropriately revealing or even insecure,” he said. The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace is key in addressing this problem, Richberg added. The Government Accountability Office found that from 2006 to 2009, the number of security incidents has increased significantly, said Gregory Wilshusen, GAO information security issues director. One possible factor contributing to the increase could be “an increasing number of attempts to break into systems,” he said. Agencies are “probably getting better at detecting incidents and intrusions into their systems,” and it’s possible that they've improved their reporting mechanisms to the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), he said. The office plans to issue a report next year on the “agencies of their information security policies and practices” and review how agencies are recruiting and retaining people in the cyber workforce, he said.
The federal government is making several efforts to overcome challenges to boosting risk management, workforce development and other aspects of cybersecurity, agency officials told federal workers Friday at the Cyber Security Readiness conference in Washington. The number of organizations housed under the Commerce Department and the lack of centralized resources are some of the challenges to supporting risk management and cybersecurity at the agency, said Simon Szykman, chief information officer for the department. The department plans to move from having a paper documentation-based method for systems certification and accreditation to “moving towards a more operational view,” he said. That involves situational awareness and continuous monitoring of network systems, he said. “We're working to update our entire risk management framework within the department to be a little more progressive in those types of ways.” The government’s effort to sharpen cybersecurity is hindered by “the lack of a common definition of what is included in cybersecurity versus what properly belongs elsewhere, and of a common model or taxonomy within which to frame our responses to problems,” said Jim Richberg, assistant deputy director of national cyber intelligence at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. “Authentication in cyberspace is another challenge,” he said. There are weak default credentials and “transactions that are inappropriately revealing or even insecure,” he said. The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace is key in addressing this problem, Richberg added. The Government Accountability Office found that from 2006 to 2009, the number of security incidents has increased significantly, said Gregory Wilshusen, GAO information security issues director. One possible factor contributing to the increase could be “an increasing number of attempts to break into systems,” he said. Agencies are “probably getting better at detecting incidents and intrusions into their systems,” and it’s possible that they've improved their reporting mechanisms to the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), he said. The office plans to issue a report next year on the “agencies of their information security policies and practices” and review how agencies are recruiting and retaining people in the cyber workforce, he said.