March 2012

European lawmakers agreed to extend the Continent’s system of retail price controls on mobile phone roaming charges for five years, and enacted the first price caps on mobile Internet fees that are paid by traveling smartphone users.

The new, lower price controls will serve as an extension of a cap on roaming fees for voice service and text messaging that have been in effect in the 27-nation European Union since 2007. They were approved as part of a broader package of reforms that are intended to fundamentally increase competition in the industry. The agreement is likely to give consumers the right to buy roaming services from any operator. The package, which requires approval from the European Parliament and Council of Ministers, was brokered by Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner responsible for telecommunications, a Dutch economist and Europe’s former competition commissioner. Leaders of both chambers of Parliament signed off on the package Wednesday, which virtually assures adoption of the measure in Brussels later this spring. Starting July 1, 2014, E.U. consumers will have the ability to buy roaming service from any operator, not just their regular carrier. On this day, European operators will be required to sell wholesale access to their networks to competitors and virtual operators who wish to sell roaming services.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's top cyber cop offered a grim appraisal of the nation's efforts to keep computer hackers from plundering corporate data networks: "We're not winning," he said. Shawn Henry, who is preparing to leave the FBI after more than two decades with the bureau, said in an interview that the current public and private approach to fending off hackers is "unsustainable.''

Computer criminals are simply too talented and defensive measures too weak to stop them, he said. His comments weren't directed at specific legislation but came as Congress considers two competing measures designed to buttress the networks for critical U.S. infrastructure, such as electrical-power plants and nuclear reactors. Though few cybersecurity experts disagree on the need for security improvements, business advocates have argued that the new regulations called for in one of the bills aren't likely to better protect computer networks. Henry, who is leaving government to take a cybersecurity job with an undisclosed firm in Washington, said companies need to make major changes in the way they use computer networks to avoid further damage to national security and the economy. Too many companies, from major multinationals to small start-ups, fail to recognize the financial and legal risks they are taking—or the costs they may have already suffered unknowingly—by operating vulnerable networks, he said.

Retailers and direct marketers are opposed to the Federal Trade Commission's new customer protection recommendations for online transactions. Both groups say companies—not customers—should decide how long, and which, electronic consumer data is stored.

The FTC, the federal government's main consumer protection agency, is pushing companies to delete most electronic information about customers once the data is no longer relevant to a specific transaction, and not saved for later marketing purposes. The voluntary FTC guidelines, released Monday, are designed to protect customer privacy amid growing concerns about how online data are gathered and shared by companies and marketers. But retailers and direct marketers say the new guidelines would undermine their relationship with customers. "It's like asking the green grocer to open up his mind and forget that you like green lettuce," said Mallory Duncan, general counsel for the National Retail Federation. Duncan said NRF-member companies like Amazon collect information on book preferences to make recommendations long after an initial purchase is completed. "You run the risk of seriously undermining consumer pleasure if you limited that information," he said.

The telecommunications industry is applauding the House for passing a GOP-backed bill that would limit the powers of the Federal Communications Commission. Representatives of several industry groups said the bill would add predictability and transparency to the workings of an agency that has long been derided as mercurial and opaque.

Jot Carpenter, Vice President of Government Affairs for CTIA - The Wireless Association, shares the goal of a "more transparent, predictable regulatory process."

National Cable and Telecommunications Association president Michael Powell said the bill "will promote greater transparency and predictability in Commission decision making."

Free Press Action Fund policy adviser Joel Kelsey said the "so-called FCC reform bill is a misguided effort that puts the emphasis on protecting corporations rather than consumers." Kelsey praised Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) for offering an amendment that he said would "put the focus back where it belongs, on the public." But even with amendments, Kelsey said the bill would remain undesirable. "[T]he underlying legislation would … create irreversible long term harm," Kelsey said, by tying the FCC's hands at a time when it oversees an "increasingly consolidated" industry.