International News

Telecoms

a) European Commission.  94% of Europeans who travel outside their home country limit their use of services like Facebook, because of mobile roaming charges, according to a new survey of 28,000 EU citizens. The European Commission calculates that telecoms companies are missing out on a market of around 300 million phone users because of current pricing strategies, with negative effects for other businesses such as app makers. [read more]

b) TeleGeography.  Just six months after inaugurating its commercial LTE network, British cellco Vodafone UK has announced that sign-ups for its 4G services have surpassed half a million. [read more]

Spectrum

a) Total Telecom.  SK Telecom on Monday took another step towards rolling out 300-Mbps LTE-A after it received permission to use additional frequencies for three-band carrier aggregation (CA). [read more]

b) Advanced Television.  Italy’s Ministry of Economic Development has defined the regulations for the awarding of DVB-T frequencies that will make up three new national DTT multiplexes. [read more]

c) Total Telecom.  Mobile operators need exclusive access to spectrum for mobile broadband services, the GSMA insisted on Tuesday. The growing pressure on… [read more]

d) ComReg.  Management and use of the UHF radio frequency band in Ireland (470 – 790 MHz). Given the upcoming change in the allocation status of the 700 MHz band at WRC-15 and the discussions that are ongoing in relation to the future use of the UHF band at an international level, the aim of this preliminary consultation paper is to stimulate and facilitate discussion at a national level on the future use of the UHF band. [read more]

Internet

a) Total Telecom.  Europe ended 2013 with 20.1 million fibre-to-the-home/building (FTTH/B) subscribers as adoption gathered pace, according to the FTTH Council Europe. However, there is still a long way to go before the region is considered a mature fibre market. [read more]

b) TeleGeography. Swiss fixed line incumbent Swisscom is deploying Alcatel-Lucent’s 7302 Intelligent Services Access Manager (ISAM) using point-to-point Ethernet technology to offer fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband services with transfer rates of up to 1Gbps… [read more]

c) European Broadcasting Union.  Public service media (PSM) today joined voices with online content and software providers to urge Members of the European Parliament to strengthen rules on net neutrality, ahead of a crucial vote in the European Parliament (24 February) on the draft Single Telecoms Package Regulation. [read more]

d) European Commission.  Imagine that you are driving along, and a message is projected on your windscreen, warning you of an accident that has just happened around the next corner. This could soon be a reality thanks to new European standards. Connected cars, able to communicate with each other and with road infrastructures, are expected to appear on European roads in 2015.  [read more]

e) EurActiv.  Similar initiatives have been carried out for a decade, since the first celebration of the Safer Internet Day by the European Commission. But despite the hypes of the communication campaigns, results are still seriously missing in the battle to make the Web more kid-friendly.  [read more]

f) EurActiv.  The European Commission is trying to carve a mediator role for itself in the global debate over the future of internet governance, taking its distance from the US but also from the idea of a United Nations' leadership of the Web, supported by Russia and China. [read more]

Broadcasting

a) Advanced Television.  Portugal’s National Communications Authority (Anacom) has launched a project, consisting of 400 probes, to monitor the DTT signal 24 hours a day. [read more]

Information Technology

a) Lexology. The EU Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) announced in a press release that it has produced a report titled ‘Good Practice Guide for Securely Deploying Governmental Clouds’, which analyses the current state of play regarding governmental Cloud deployment in 23 countries across Europe, categorised on a scale of “Early adoptors”, “Well-Informed”, “Innovators” or “Hesitants”. [read more]

Post

a) Post & Parcel.  Royal Mail is launching a new ‘International Tracked and Signed’ delivery service for businesses and individuals posting to 43 destinations worldwide. The new combined end to end tracking and... [read more]

International Meetings

1. European University Institute:Our External Relations Analyst attended the annual training on Communications and Media Regulation at the Florence School of Regulation on the 15^th February 2014.

2. High Level Internet Governance Meeting  (HLIG): Our Chief of Information Management and Development attended a High Level Internet Governance Meeting  in Brussels on the 18^th February 2014.

3. 33rd RSPG Meeting: Our Chief of Technology and Spectrum Management and our Policy and Strategy Manager attended the Radio Spectrum Policy Group Meeting held in Brussels on the 19th  February 2014.

4. Europe General Assembly 2014:  Our Project Co-ordinator attended the Telecentre-Europe General Assembly held in Latvia on the 19th Febriary 2014.

Publications

1. SAFER INTERNET DAY 2014: On the 11th February 2014, the Insafe and INHOPE networks, represented in Malta through the BeSmartOnline! Consortium, are celebrating Safer Internet Day (SID). To view more information click here.

2. TENDER FOR ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY ADVERTISING, PUBLIC RELATIONS AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES: Sealed tenders will be received up to 1200hrs on 10th March 2014. To view more information click here.

3. STRATEGIC PLAN UPDATE FOR 2014 – 2016: The Strategic Plan Update represents the MCA's strategic direction for the period 2014 - 2016. It validates established strategic direction and factors in new developments that are seen to have a significant impact during the plan period. To view more information click here.

Legal Update

There were no legal updates in this period.