President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has approved a change to Brazil’s telecommunications law, allowing fixed-line telecoms to operate in more than one region of the country. … more

The Spanish telecommunications regulator said Tuesday that it was in talks with the European Commission over access to the former state monopoly’s new high-speed broadband network. … more

How much would you pay for unlimited access to WiFi hotspots that stretched for miles instead of a few hundred feet, provided unbroken connections even deep inside buildings, and offered broadband speeds ten times faster than today’s wimpy connections found in coffee shops, hotel lobbies, airport lounges and homes? … more

The European Commission has informed the Spanish telecoms regulator, Comisión del Mercado de las Telecomunicaciones (CMT), that it has serious doubts that the draft measures on the Spanish wholesale broadband access market, notified under the Electronic Communications Framework Directive, are compatible with EU law. … more

In the 1960s, the rock band The Kinks sang, “I’m a lover, not a fighter.”

Today, one industry analyst said the nation’s telecom carriers would benefit from showing some love toward Google Inc. instead of fighting over issues such as Net neutrality, white-space spectrum usage and selling software as a service over carrier networks. … more

Being one of the national telecommunications regulators in Europe is not an easy job, largely because the governments they work for still own significant stakes in powerful former state phone monopolies. That can make it easy to get caught up in politics reports the International Herald Tribune. … more

The European Commission said Friday that it had scaled back its plans for a new telecommunications agency that would ensure consistent regulatory decisions by national authorities reports Bloomberg News. … more

The Telecommunications Users Association has called for a “telecommunications hui”, following National’s election victory. … more

Today, the European Commission is publishing new legislative texts on the EU Telecoms Reform package to take account of the European Parliament vote of 24 September 2008 and the ongoing discussions in the Council. In November 2007, the Commission made proposals for the reform of the EU Telecoms rules, designed to create a Single EU Telecoms Market with improved rights for consumers and businesses, more competition and investment to boost the take-up of cross-border services and wireless high-speed broadband for all (IP/07/1677). The new texts presented by the Commission today will be discussed in the Council of Telecoms Ministers on 27 November. At the heart of the compromise texts is a new, small and independent office for Europe’s telecoms regulators that should help the Commission to bring about more consistency to regulatory measures on Europe’s telecoms markets. The new regulatory framework is expected to become law in all 27 EU Member States by 2010. … more

Éric Besson, Secretary of State to the French Prime Minister, has unveiled ‘Digital France 2012’, the country’s action plan for the development of the Digital Economy.

This action plan seeks to place once again France among the pioneer countries in the field of digital technologies. It therefore proposes over 150 actions structured around four core priorities, listed as follows: … more