INTUG

Last week CTO Ventures, a commercial subsidiary of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) endorsed the launch of a low-cost “borderless Commonwealth” mobile data roaming service for its member countries and beyond.

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INTUG responded to the BEREC consultation (PDF) on barriers within the EU to provision of communications services for international businesses.

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Today the European Commission proposed an EU wide cap on mobile data roaming fees of 90 euro cents starting July 1, 2012. The cap would fall to 70 euro cents a year later, and to 50 euro cents by July 1, 2014. Currently one megabyte of data averages EUR2.23 (USD3.22).

Nick White, Executive Vice President of INTUG said,

“The latest retail price cap proposals demonstrate acceptance by politicians and regulators that roaming charges are an unjustified imposition on consumers and a stealth tax on cross-border trade which relies increasingly on mobile data communications. However, they still do not go far enough in eliminating this particular symptom of market failure.”

Read more in the NY Times.

Europe’s national regulators are to launch the first pan-European investigation into telecoms companies’ controversial data traffic management practices, in an attempt to safeguard so-called net neutrality principles, the Financial Times reports (registration required).

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The choice of one services provider or one ICT element should not restrict the choices available elsewhere in the ICT landscape, declares INTUG in its response to the “Public Consultation on the Open Internet and Net Neutrality in Europe”, submitted this week.

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Europe’s economy could benefit by as much as 1,300 billion euros over the next 20 years with the development of seamless pan-European electronic communications services, according to a new study released by Indepen Consulting.

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INTUG is actively lobbying the European Commission for the Framework Review, in particular to improve availability and competition in the provision of access circuits. This is critical for multinational corporations seeking to establish regional and global networks with consolidated applications and one-stop-shop management of supply, e.g. global or European contracts. This requires equivalence of input available to competitive carriers in individual member states and the preservation of MVNOs.

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