UK - Scotland is not compliant with the EU acquis communitaire for electronic communications and broadcasting

It is frequently stated that Scotland is compliant with the acquis communitaire of the European Union, which is wrong and misleading. Compliance requires the treaties, directives, recommendations, decisions and other EU legal instruments to have been transposed into national law and to have been implemented. The exceptions are the regulations, which have direct effect (e.g., Roaming III Regulation).

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is largely compliant with the acquis communitaire, but it does not follow that Scotland is compliant. At any one time most member states are not quite fully compliant, with directives not yet transposed, improperly transposed or not implemented, with the EC pressing governments to correct or to enact the necessary legislation, if necessary bringing infringement proceedings before the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to require them to do so. For example, in 2013 the EC brought four cases against HMG, all on taxation, including one relating to corporation tax in Gibraltar.

Countries which are candidates for accession to membership are required to undergo complex procedures in order to become compliant, divided into a number of “chapters”, supported by the EC and consultants (see COM(2013) 700). Representatives of the institutions also begin to participate in the complex EU systems of network governance.

Ultimately, a political judgement is made, assessing the technical evaluations of compliance, based on:

• Political criteria;
• Economic criteria; and
• The ability to take on obligations of EU membership.

Sometimes a country is admitted as a member state, even if it is not wholly compliant in a small number of areas, in the expectation it will be able to catch up.

Thus when the Council of Ministers is asked to consider the admission of Scotland, all the member states will be thoroughly familiar with the process of ensuring compliance and most will have been admitted in that way. Ensuring compliance is business as usual and the demonstrably false claim of already being complaint does little to advance the case for Scotland. If the EC did not make an assessment on its own initiative it would be likely that a member state might require that it conduct that exercise.

For broadcasting and telecommunications, accession and candidate countries have been required to transpose into their national law the various EU directives and to create the necessary institutions, notably broadcasting and telecommunication regulatory authorities, a national competition authority, plus systems of appeals. The EC engaged consultants to analyse the laws, regulations and institutions in the various countries and to hold regular meetings of the regulatory authorities, covering the period 2005 to 2013. This reported in detail every nine months the progress being made to inform the teams negotiating Chapter 10 on information society and media, including:

• legislative framework,
• institutional framework,
• market access conditions,
• spectrum assignments,
• competitive safeguards,
• market structure and
• outlook.

For example, on the Chapter 10 negotiations for Montenegro the EC reported progress, but expressed some concern about the legal provisions for independence of the regulator and the delays in the decision of the Constitutional Court (see SWD(2013) 411).

While it would be trivial for Scotland to adopt a single clause bill to convert all necessary EU laws into Scottish statutes that would not achieve compliance. It would be necessary to create the institutions and then to demonstrate that the systems worked effectively, for example, that the broadcasting authority, multi-sector regulator and competition authority were independent and efficient, that appeals could be handled expeditiously. Perhaps the biggest challenge would be to conduct the first market telecommunications analyses, since this requires a considerable volume of data from operators and some skill in its analysis. The data can only be provided once the operators had separated the Scottish parts of their networks from their UK networks.

The institutions could be place in eighteen months. However, testing their effectiveness could well take another year.

UK - Scotland - Analysis of telecommunications, broadband and Internet proposals of the "white paper" on independence by the Scottish Government

A Short Note on Scotland's Future – The Internet, Broadband and Telecommunications

The Scottish Government has published its proposals for the future administration of an independent Scotland. This represents its case for a vote in favour of independence in September 2014 and the outline of its manifesto in the Scottish parliamentary elections planned for 2016, by when it hopes Scotland will have left the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Opinion polls continue to show that the plebiscite will fail, with only about one quarter of the electorate favouring independence. Scotland would become a member of the EU and comply with its acquis communitaire, join the Council of Europe, becoming a signatory to its conventions, and join the ITU adopting its Radio Regulations.

The Scottish Government has identified key economic sectors: energy, life sciences, creative industries, financial services, tourism, food & drink, and universities. It plans to reindustrialise the Scottish economy, focusing innovation.

The provisions for broadband, Internet and telecommunications remain vague and without a timetable. The institutional arrangements include a junior minister of communications within a Ministry of Culture, Communications & Digital, with a multi-sector economic regulator, a media regulator, a competition authority and a consumer protection body. Existing licences for a range of activities (e.g., broadcasting, gambling and telecommunications) would be “honoured”, though the mechanism is unexplained. It is unclear whether the existing UK legislation will be converted into Scottish statutes or whether the EU directives will be transposed from scratch.

Considerable attention is to be given to increasing services in rural areas, with calls for more fibre and 4G networks, notably with the announcement of 99% coverage obligations for 700 MHz mobile licences. Whereas, the low levels of adoption of broadband in urban Scotland are ignored, with no proposals to boost demand.

Scotland will not request an ITU country code, but seek to continue to use the UK code of 44. It will not use an ISO 3166 two-letter country code top level domain, but instead use dot Scot and the existing UK top level domains.

Based on the present EC legislative proposal (COM(2013)627), the Scottish Government maintains there would be neither roaming charges nor international charges for telephone calls between Scotland and the rest of the UK. This may not be enacted as proposed. Significant omissions include provision for regulators of advertising and gambling. There is no mention of replacement for the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal, perhaps because appeals would be heard directly in the Court of Session. Much depends on negotiations between the Scottish Government and Her Majesty’s Government in London in the period between September 2014 and independence day on 24 March 2016. A complicating factor is the UK general election in May 2015.

UK - Parliament hears complaints about the exclusionary, anticompetitive behaviour of BT in the Govt's scheme for rural broadband

V3 reported on the recent hearing by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on the rural broadband initiative of the Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS):

The lack of transparency on pricing was also discussed by Malcolm Corbett, chief executive of the Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA) and Nicholas James, chief executive of UK Broadband, who cited numerous concerns with BT.

Corbett went as far as to deliver the standout line of the sessions, likening BT to a ‘vampire death squid’ for the way it acts towards smaller, local providers.

The accusations were that DCMS had modified the terms of the agreement in ways that favoured BT to the exclusion of all others, but assigning small areas and by requiring only 90 per cent coverage.

In its report PC Pro completed one of the witnesses:

The maestro in question is Nicholas James, chief executive of UK Broadband, a company that wanted to spend £150 million on improving Britain’s fibre network, but couldn’t. Yesterday, he appeared before the Public Accounts Committee, and in only ten minutes destroyed the credibility of the government body – Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) – that’s spending almost half a billion pounds of public money on next-generation access.

The Daily Telegraph reported

Telecoms executives attacked the Government for “moving the goalposts” on a subsidy scheme to provide superfast broadband to rural homes and businesses so that BT was effectively awarded £1.2bn in public money without competition.

The video of the full hearing can be viewed here.

UK - Regulator consulting on cutting the cost of a customer switching broadband suppliers and

Ofcom has proposed and has launched a consultation on measures to promote competition among superfast broadband providers:

Under proposals for consultation, the wholesale cost of switching a customer from one superfast broadband supplier to another would fall by up to 80%. In addition, the minimum length of the wholesale contract between BT and the switched customer’s new supplier would be reduced from a year to just one month.

The measures form part of Ofcom’s Fixed Access Market Reviews, a wide-ranging consultation on the wholesale telecoms markets used by a range of companies to offer telephone and broadband services to UK consumers.

The consultation on the Fixed Access Market Reviews closes on 25 September 2013.

UK - NAO report forecasts 2-year delay on rural broadband availability, BT is sole supplier and costs are not transparent to HMG

The National Audit Office (NAO) has published a report on a government initiative to improve access to broadband in rural areas:

A government programme to make superfast broadband available to 90 per cent of premises in each area of the UK is currently expected to be delivered nearly two years later than initially planned, the National Audit Office has reported.

The design of the competitive framework had the advantages of ensuring affordability and transferring risk but, together with State aid conditions and other commercial factors, led to potential suppliers withdrawing from the bidding process. BT was left as the only active participant in the framework and is likely to win all 44 local projects.

In addition, the Department has secured only limited transparency over the costs in BT’s bids. It does not have strong assurance that costs, take-up assumptions and the extent of contingency contained in BT’s bids are reasonable.

The project funding contributed by BT has so far been lower than originally modelled – the Department now expects the company to provide just 23 per cent of the overall projected funding of £1.5 billion, some £207 million less than it modelled in 2011. At the same time, by the end of the programme, BT is likely to have benefited from £1.2 billion of public money.

UK - Government report on new ways to use public sector information in response to inquiry report

The UK Government has published a response to the review of public services, which explores new ways to use public sector information. The review was launched in October 2012 by Stephan Shakespeare, Chairman of the Data Strategy Board and CEO of YouGov.

The Deloitte analysis9 which accompanied the Shakespeare Review suggests a figure of £1.8bn on the direct economic benefit from use of PSI and a figure of £6.8bn if broader economic and social impacts are taken into account. The next phase is to step up our efforts and provide business with the clarity and certainty of the flow of data to encourage investment in new opportunities.

The key issue is that central Government will not have all the insight into which datasets are the most useful to businesses nor the possibilities of how this data could be used by citizens and community groups. In addition, by harnessing the skills and appetite of people throughout the public sector and in business, we are more likely to be able to release larger amounts of data. This argues for a plan which is collaborative and open with clear principles guiding it and where public sector bodies are held to account to their commitments in a transparent way.

The Information Economy Strategy was published separately.

UK - Technology Strategy Board has published an analysis of its Future Cities Demonstrator Programme

The Technology Strategy Board (TSB) has published a report, Solutions for Cities: An analysis of the Feasibility Studies from the Future Cities Demonstrator Programme:

It presents a detailed picture of some of the future visions of UK cities, the challenges they face, and the opportunities they have to deliver an improved quality of life for their citizens.

Just over a year ago the TSB launched its Future Cities Demonstrator competition, challenging UK cities to show how they would integrate their city systems to create better places to live and work. The report, prepared by Arup, draws out the common trends and themes that unite these unique city visions of a smarter, more sustainable future. By identifying these common themes, we can identify areas for future collaborations between cities and industry, new challenges for the research base, and new business opportunities for innovative companies.

England - Survey finds only £3 million broadband funding for local councils has yet been handed over

The BBC reports that the funding from the BDUK has hardly begun to reach county councils in England:

A survey of English councils that are commissioning high-speed broadband access in rural areas has found many have yet to receive their share of a half billion pound government fund.

Only two of the respondents said they had been given any money by this March.

The government has allocated £530m to help meet its aim of delivering broadband to virtually all of the country by the next election in 2015.

It repeats newspaper stories in the Financial Times and the Daily Telegraph suggesting BDUK could be spun off as a private company.

UK - Super-Connected Cities plan scaled back following legal challenges by operators

The Guardian reports that BT and Virgin Media have forced HMG to revise its Super-Connect Cities plan:

A government scheme to spend £150m on broadband infrastructure to create 22 "super-connected cities", championed by George Osborne, has been dramatically scaled back following legal challenges. The plan to help cities build superfast internet connections to homes and businesses not served by BT and Virgin Media's existing networks has been reduced to a voucher scheme, the government confirmed on Tuesday, to be spent in areas where connections already exist.

The original scheme, repeatedly highlighted by Osborne in budget statements, was intended to deliver speeds of between 80 and 100 megabits per second to 22 cities, helping 1.7m households and 200,000 premises by 2015, as well as high-speed wireless broadband for 3 million residents.

Mobile - Operators assert EU lags USA in advanced services because of fragmented market, want more consolidation and better spectrum harmonisation

The GSM Association has published a report comparing mobile wireless performance in the EU and the USA:

There is broad agreement that the EU mobile wireless market is underperforming relative to other advanced economies, including the U.S. We find that the EU is lagging well behind the U.S. in deployment of next generation wireless infrastructures and the advanced services they make possible, and that EU consumers are worse off as a result. EU regulatory policies have resulted in a fragmented market structure which prevents carriers from capturing beneficial economies of scale and scope and retards the growth of the mobile wireless ecosystem. We recommend reforming and harmonizing spectrum policies, permitting efficient levels of consolidation, and promoting innovation by fostering dynamic competition.

Satellite - Members of Scottish Parliament reacted positively to demo of broadband for rural and remote areas

The Stornoway Gazette reports on a satellite broadband briefing at the Scottish Parliament, by Avonline Managing Director Mark Wynn and Steve Petrie director for Eutelsat broadband.

Dave Thompson (MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch) was quoted as saying:

I was very impressed with the speed on offer. This new standard of satellite broadband addresses many of the problems experienced with the medium in the past, and will broaden access to broadband particularly in remote and rural areas.

Many remote communities in my constituency have poor or even no access to broadband. The challenges of a suitable infrastructure for broadband and the effect that the geography can have on reception have complicated traditional services in many remote areas, and so I welcome the new generation of satellite technology which can offer a broadband service comparable to those available via ASDL elsewhere in Scotland.

UK - Think tank calls for £5.5 Bn for ultrafast broadband to the door instead of high speed rail lines

The New Economic Foundation (NEF) has published a report arguing against HS2, the high speed rail link running north from London.

Rather than spend £33 billion on HS2, the NEF calls for:

• £10 billion on upgrading our exiting North-South mainlines
• £10 billion to overhaul regional rail around the country
• £6 billion on improving buss and light rail (e.g. tram) networks around the UK – and introducing smart ticketing systems (like London’s Oyster card)
• £2 billion on better biking and walking infrastructure
• £5.5 billion on rolling out ultra fast ‘to-the-door’ broadband coverage across the UK – boosting business and reducing the demand for unnecessary business travel

The full text is available here.

The cost of providing fibre-optic connectivity to every house in the UK has been estimated to be at least £15 billion, however. So while our alternative investment package would clearly not contain the full amount necessary to reach every UK home, it could connect most homes in the core cities shown below.

USA - White House reports that for 10 Mbps 91% of population have access to fixed & 81% to mobile broadband

The White House has published a report on progress with broadband:

Today, about 91 percent of Americans have access to wired broadband speeds of at least 10 Mbps downstream, and 81 percent of Americans have access to similarly fast mobile wireless broadband.

• In the year 2000, 4.4% of American households had a home connection to broadband; by 2010 that number had jumped to 68%.
• Broadband networks at a baseline speed of >10 megabits per second now reach more than 94% of U.S. homes.
• Overall, average delivered broadband speeds have doubled since 2009. In 2012, North America’s average mobile data connection speed was 2.6 Mbps, the fastest in the world, nearly twice that available in Western Europe, and over five times the global average.
• Annual investment in U.S. wireless networks grew more than 40% between 2009 and 2012, from $21 billion to $30 billion, and exceeds investment by the major oil and gas or auto companies; investment in European wireless networks remained flat during this time period, while wireless investment in Asia (including China)rose only 4%.
• There are over 500 million Internet-connected devices now in American homes and businesses

Further detail is available from the NTIA report Exploring the Digital Nation: America’s Emerging Online Experience.

Study - Reports claims significant adverse effects of local loop unbundling on EU broadband and productivity performance

At an ITIF seminar in Washington DC, Copenhagen Economics presented its report "Europe can catch up with the US: A contrast of two contrary [sic] broadband models" by Martin Thelle and Bruno Basalisco:

... the US and EU took two different broadband policy paths since the late Nineties: the former focused on infrastructure-based competition; the latter focused on service-based competition via broadband unbundling.

Several European fixed telecom incumbents have refrained from investing aggressive-ly in next generation access networks due to regulation affecting the business case for fiber investments.

Furthermore, unbundling has contributed to keep prices so low in the EU that a creeping investment malaise has resulted. A decade later, per capita investment in telecommunications networks in the US is more than 50% higher than in the EU (US$ 197 to US$ 129 in 2009).

In turn, total ICT investments in the US were more than double than in the EU, which contributes to explain the productivity gap between the EU and the higher productivi-ty US. Had the US followed the EU's slower pace in ICT investments since the late 1990s, US labour productivity growth would have been 25-30 % lower than it is today.

The US industrial structure of widespread inter-platform competition, the result of past regulatory choices, implies that the US is justified today in staying the course and maintain a lighter regulatory policy for fixed telecoms

Europe - Commission public meeting on a single market for telecoms hears a range of views from established players

The European Commission held a public meeting on "A single telecom market for growth & jobs" this morning in Brussels.

As is often the case with such meetings it was the "usual suspects" giving the usual views, everyone seems to be typecast.

The Commissioner was pressing for input for her legislative proposal to be made in September. The incumbent operators want relief from regulation and competition, the new entrants want the opposite and the regulators wanted to be allowed to continue regulating.

While everyone spoke for a single market, these were different single market, some were for infrastructure, some for telecommunications, and some for ICT services.

Commissioner Kroes made clear she wants to move quickly, an old lady in a hurry, and consequently would not be proposing abolition of the regulators. What she would propose was very much less clear, though she had spoken on her intentions at the European Parliament on 30th May.

There is no archive of the webcast video yet available.

Scotland - A way forward on broadband would be the creation of neutral stakeholders forum to analyse and share understandings of problems and solutions

The Scottish Government, as part of its Digital Dialogue, held an event on "Regulatory options for delivering world class digital infrastructure by 2002" on 13 June 2013. This relates to:

Scotland’s Digital Future: Infrastructure Action Plan outlines a commitment to a future-proofed infrastructure that will deliver world-class digital connectivity across the whole of Scotland by 2020.

One conclusion of the meeting was that, following the examples of the Swedish Bredsbands Forum and the UK Broadband Stakeholders Group, there was a case to create a neutral "forum" or "platform" for all broadband "stakeholders". This would be a useful way to continue the debate, to share opinions and to present information to the public, to regulators and to government.

I have posted by own small contribution on what world class might mean.

It is worth noting that none of the multiplicity of UK regulators (e.g., OFCOM, Advertising Standards Authority, OTA² and PayPhonePlus) was in the room, let alone asked to speak. Of course, telecommunications and competition policy are not devolved matters, but are exclusively matters for the UK government.

Bengt Mölleryd of the Swedish regulator PTS set out the situation in Sweden. In particular he noted the substantial developments of "village fibre" networks and the deployment of 4G/LTE networks. The latter was enabled by the network sharing for 3G, following the beauty contest which had awarded licences to operators proposing to build the most masts. Individuals were adopting 4G and were paying up to £1,500 per household to install a fibre connection.

Matt Yardley (Analysys Mason) considered copper not to be dead, but to continue to be an important network element. He argued access to ducts and poles was largely irrelevant. In rural areas a single infrastructure was an option.

Domhnal Dods (Towerhouse Consulting) called for competition rather than regulation. He noted the limited scope of the present arrangements with the EU regulatory framework and the UK legislation. While the EC had suggested further reforms this was being opposed by HMG. He drew attention to the devolved powers over the business rates charged on networks, which were applied inconsistently to BT, alternative operators and community initiatives. The Electronic communications code had been strongly criticised in a recent judgement by the UK Supreme Court.

The discussion period had a fairly heated exchange over the position of BT in the UK government's rural broadband schemes. Given that it was the sole bidder and already the SMP operator in local access there was concern that taxpayer's money was shoring up the its dominant position in the market. The suggestion was made that the access condition to the BT network might not have been aligned either with the Openreach platform or the requirements of likely access seekers.

UK - Consultation by HMG on modifications to OFCOM's statutory duties and functions closes on 25 June

The UK government has proposed changes to the statutory duties and functions of the Office of Communications (OFCOM).

It launched a consultation in April which closes on 25th June 2013.

Scotland - BT fined £50,000 for roadworks in the Highlands that endangered the public

The Scotsman reports a fine against BT of £150,000:

BT has received the maximum fine of £50,000 from Scotland’s roadworks commissioner for endangering the public with work carried out in the Highlands – the first penalty of its kind ever imposed.

Engineers left unmanned, gaping holes in pavements without barriers or signs on 
numerous occasions. Works 
also proceeded with an excavator operating on a busy footpath, again with no signs or barriers, and with no safe route for pedestrians.

Some of the streetworks also caused buses and cars to mount pavements in an effort to pass.

UK - Cisco points to a range of developments that could keep the UK ahead in mobile technology developments

Cisco has published an analysis of 4G in the United Kingdom:

The UK is a hotbed of mobile creativity and talent, being one of the most advanced markets for smartphone adoption.

The UK is a leader in app development ...

British innovation is also heating up in the emerging field of machine-to-machine communications (also known as the ‘Internet of Things’ or IoT).

Europe - Point Topic estimates cost of of superfast broadband would be €80 billion not the EC's €270 billion

Telecoms.com reports that for speeds of at least 30 Mbps:

Providing super-fast broadband to the whole of the European Union could be much less expensive than previously thought, according to UK research firm Point Topic, which estimates that the whole economic area could be served for €80bn – less than a third of the €270bn estimated by the European Commission in its Digital Agenda.