On 2nd March the EC opened a consultation on the future of universal service in a digital era.

The new presidency’s agenda includes a proposal to make broadband provision compulsory in Europe.

Businesses are driving fibre deployment across Europe at a far greater rate than governments. In fact, corporations and public institutions could even hold the key to widening the UK’s next generation footprint.
That is the conclusion of Lee Myall, UK Regional Director for Interoute, a telecommunications company which claims to have more than 57,000km of ‘lit’ [...]

One of the UK’s biggest ISPs says a late amendment to an European Union agreement on telecoms regulations means it’ll now be “almost impossible” for film studios and music labels to force ISPs to disconnect customers who are suspected of illegal files-sharing without obtaining a court order first. The so-called “Internet Freedom Provision” – deemed by the EU to “strengthen the rights of Internet users” – is part of a package of measures that could come into force as early as next year.

It’s not just the British Government that’s been considering how to use broadband to bridge the “digital divide” – Europe’s been at it too. And now the European Commission has set out rules on when state aid can and can’t be used in hooking up its disconnected and digitally disenfranchised citizens, does the final draft of the UK’s Digital Britain report face yet more revisions?

ISPs have reacted with guarded optimism to Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, pulling back on controversial plans to store all details of a subscriber’s web and email traffic on a single, unified database.
The ISPs are still legally obliged to record details of a person’s web viewing habits – including what IPTV they have consumed, which sites [...]

After news yesterday that Phorm could be getting the U.K. Government in trouble with the European courts, Amazon UK has announced it’s not going to let the behaviour-advertising system scan its web pages. The controversial technology  – which is marketed under the name Webwise – works by scanning for keywords in the pages an Internet [...]

The European Commission has said it is going to take the UK to court over its failure to enforce european privacy and data protection laws — and it’s all because of Phorm. Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding has for the past few months been conversing with the Information Commissioner’s Office about the online advertiser’s controversial methods [...]

The ‘bill shock’ often associated with a trip abroad could be eased from this July as new European rules are due to be put in place that will limit roaming charges to 1 Euro per Mb. Then, within two years, the legislation will impose a further cap on operators of 50 cents per Mb.
A spokesperson [...]

Privacy campaigners have ushered in the new year with warnings that new EU rules compelling ISPs to keep a record of email communications for a year are an infringement of civil liberties.
However, Alex Brown, a partner at Simmons & Simmons’ and data privacy expert believes that the new law, which comes in to effect in [...]

The European Commission’s recently announced Recovery Plan includes a €5 billion injection of unspent EU funds “to improve energy interconnections and broadband infrastructure”.
A little more detail is available in the FAQ where it is stated that “The strategy will be supported by public funds in order to provide broadband access to under-served and high cost [...]

The EU has introduced an amendment to a telecoms law which campaigners and IT lawyers fear could bring in the controversial “three strikes and you’re out” approach to file sharers.
British ISPs have been united in their opposition to the approach heralded by copyright holders, in particular the BPI which represents record labels, which would see [...]

Yesterday the Guardian had a pull-out “Optical Fibre” supplement whilst Ofcom’s Chief Executive was talking to a conference in London about “super-fast broadband”.
The back page of the Guardian supplement was occupied by an advert from Virgin media, who have faced some controversy following advertising their services as “fibre optic” when the final stretch of cable [...]