A more right-wing European Parliament could mean fewer regulatory initiatives in the area of tech, a weakened push for market integration, but more support for defence tech, according to party manifestos and an interview with an expert.
While most politicians and lawmakers have been discussing enlargement prospects for the EU, others have quietly worked to bring together EU citizens and their European neighbours in a much more technical but tangible way: telecommunications.
On 20 March, GSMA – the organisation representing the interests of mobile network operators worldwide – published its latest manifesto, setting out reforms it believes are needed to make Europe’s connectivity ecosystem fit for the future.
The Commission announced a consultation on EU's telecom market, open until June and committed to a post-quantum cryptography recommendation, when presenting its connectivity package.
Telecoms sector regulation must look to the future if Europe's connectivity goals are to be met. Still, it is important not to lose sight of efforts to bridge the digital divide, according to stakeholders.
The European telecoms sector’s declining profits and international competitiveness have long been a cause for concern amongst business practitioners, leading to louder calls for the sector to be restructured.
The European Parliament has backed the extension of free roaming services in the EU until 2032 and its position envisages lower cap prizes than initially proposed, provisions on intra-EU calls, stronger quality of service, and transparency obligations for telecom providers.
The European Commission has admitted that there will be a delay on targets to launch 5G telecommunications networks across all EU member states by the end of 2020, owing to postponements in spectrum frequency auctions that have occurred as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
The spread of the coronavirus is becoming a stress test for Austria's internet infrastructure, as internet traffic exploded virtually overnight. To protect the country's capacities, the regulatory authority RTR has given the green light for certain online services, like video streaming, to be throttled.
Nokia "mistakenly" sent customer data to China, the European telecoms giant has admitted, following the announcement of an investigation into the allegations by the Finnish data protection watchdog.
The European Commission will next week urge EU countries to share more data to tackle cybersecurity risks related to 5G networks but will ignore U.S. calls to ban Huawei Technologies, four people familiar with the matter said on Friday (22 March).
