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European lawmakers, who two years ago capped fees for mobile data roaming within the European Union at 50 euros a month, want to expand the protection to cover the whole world.

The proposal is part of a plan to extend Europe’s five-year-old limits on charges for voice, text and data roaming through 2022 and is likely go to a European Parliament vote by April. The current limits are set to expire in July.

Extending the price controls is considered likely, but the rates proposed for the new limits through 2014 have been criticized by both consumer advocates and large businesses alike as too high.

Read more in the New York Times.

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In a rare show of unity, telecom firms large and small have rejected European Parliament plans to further lower price caps on mobile phone calls passed abroad – the so-called roaming regulation – saying it will squeeze out new competitors from the market.

Incumbent operators and new entrants alike all agree to condemn proposed changes to the draft roaming regulation being pushed through by the European Parliament.

Read more over at Euractiv.

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In a speech at the World Economic Forum yesterday, European Commissioner Neelie Kroes called for a partnership between governments, the ICT industy and business users to work on standardization and security of cloud computing. Through this collaboration, Kroes wants to safeguard competition and thus avoid vendor lock-ins.

Read Ms. Kroes’s speech.

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Yesterday the European statistics office Eurostat released data on broadband, ICT and Internet use of businesses in the EU. The share of businesses having mobile broadband connections at their disposal has grown in all member states, with the largest increases registered in Estonia (from 9% in 2010 to 48% in 2011), Germany (from 22% to 57%), Greece (from 6% to 38%) and France (from 28% to 60%).

The highest shares of enterprises with mobile broadband access in 2011 were found in Finland (77%), Sweden (67%) and Austria (65%), and the lowest in Romania (15%), Latvia (23%) and Poland (24%).

For the EU as a whole, the mobile broadband share amounts to 47%.

Read the full press release.

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The EU is currently in talks with the US over its reluctance to allow sensitive data transfers between the two economic powers under the US Patriot Act, one of many obstacles to the wider adoption of cloud computing.

Public tenders for cloud services in some European countries are already avoiding US providers for fear of falling under the US Patriot Act, which compels companies to transfer the personal data of terror suspects to Washington authorities.

Read more on the EurActiv web site.

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Frank Mather, EC director general for the information society, said at an Intellect conference in London that broadband access for the total population is high, but that more must be done to make Europe a competitive broadband region.

Read more »

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The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday approved an overhaul of its fund that subsidizes rural telephone service, turning it into one meant to offer broadband service to the millions of Americans who lack high-speed connections.

The NY Times has more.

This week the US Federal Communications Commission and the wireless industry announced a voluntary set of “Wireless Consumer Usage Notification Guidelines” aimed at preventing “bill shock.”

According to the FCC announcement, phone and tablet customers must be given clear notifications that they’re approaching their plan’s SMS, data and voice limits. The notifications must be free, and consumers must have the easy ability to opt out of them. The commission is working with the Consumers Union on a website that will track implementation of the alert system.

Watch FCC Chairman Jules Genachowski’s announcement.

Source: DSLreports.com