[pp.int.general] favour telecom package articles

[Jens-Wolfhard Schicke]

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Hi Amelia,

it seems our EMail clients don't like each other, somehow the quote depth got messed up pretty badly.

Amelia Andersdotter wrote:
> 2009/10/5 Jens-Wolfhard Schicke <drahflow at gmx.de <mailto:drahflow at gmx.de>>
>> Amelia Andersdotter wrote:
>>> i need a quick favour: any or every article that's been published in
>>> your member state this fall?
>> 
>> Quick list of articles I found using google (restricted to Germany,
>> restricted to current fall):
>> http://www.netzpolitik.org/2009/eu-telekom-paket-vorbereitung-fuer-eine-dritte-lesung/
>> http://asynchron.net/2009/09/telekom-paket-aktion-farbe-bekennen/
>> http://www.netzpolitik.org/2009/petition-fuer-netzneutralitaet-in-der-eu/
>> http://www.netzpolitik.org/2009/telekom-paket-vier-deutsche-eu-abgeordnete-im-vermittlungsausschuss/
>> http://www.netzpolitik.org/2009/offener-brief-wir-muessen-netzneutralitaet-in-europa-schuetzen/
>> http://www.netzpolitik.org/2009/eu-mitmachen-und-die-netzneutralitaet-zu-erhalten/
>> http://www.netzpolitik.org/2009/netzpolitik-podcast-081-netzneutralitaet-und-netzwerkmanagement/
>> http://www.golem.de/showhigh2.php?file=/0809/62222.html
>> http://berlin.piratenpartei.de/index.php/2009/09/02/es-ist-wichtig-die-netzneutralitaet-zu-erhalten/
The above articles are all from very IT-centric online-only publications.

Some more + short contents (more towards "classic" media, these are all websites of dead-tree-publishers):

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/28/28643/1.html
* apparently somebody introduced the idea that provider should be forced to protect "intellectual property" by filtering the traffic of their customers
* some hints on HADOPI in France
* net neutrality will not be upheld in the current version of the regulation, as the states may only act if "the access to certain types of applications is restricted in an unreasonable way"
* frequency allocation, in particular the idea that frequencies should be allocated in a unified fashion all over europe
* Body of European Regulators in Telecommunications - BERT should be created, according to some

http://www.heise.de/tp/blogs/6/146149
* France fears HADOPI prohibition by the EU
* France tries to influence Camilla Lindberg (see: http://www.svd.se/naringsliv/it/artikel_3578505.svd) plus some not-quite-dementi from France

http://www.focus.de/digital/internet/netzneutralitaet-debatte-auch-in-europa_aid_440042.html
* shortly after the new USA regulations for net neutrality, similar debate in europe
* multiple NGOs in europe try to push net neutrality
* Skype is unhappy in particular, problems with some mobile phone providers. Problems reported in France and with Telekom in Germany.
* Telekom AG denies all accusations but says that due to increasing traffic, real-time services might get more problems in the future
* Telekom AG connects the issue of net neutrality with quality assurance [they don't fool me...]
* German Chaos Computer Club strongly supports net neutrality as this is a "indespensibel precondition for fundamental freedoms in the digital environment"

> So what I think I'm looking for here is whether or not German newspaper
> have a primarily German perspective on the Telecoms package. When I look
> at Swedish media, I can see a clear bias for regulations that may work
> on the Swedish market but that I judge to be inherently harmful for the
> European market.
I think the topic of net neutrality is generally under-represented in German media. It was unusually hard to
find the articles above. Most articles seem to cover net activists in general, but not too much concrete
regulations of the telecom package.

> Basically:
> what is the competition situation like on the German telecoms market,
> and how does this relate to the Telecoms debate?
The German telecomunications market was initially controlled by the Deutsche Post, a state company.
The state sold the internet part as Telekom AG in 1995, slowly liberalising the market.

As of now, Germany is controlled by three large (real) cable providers: Telekom AG (still the largest),
QSC AG and Arcor AG. There are some smaller private companies active as well, e.g. Hansenet and Kabel Deutschland.

Then there is a horde of resellers which do not control any hardware but are just a thin service layer over
any of the real providers.

The one remaining problem is the pretty much total control of Telekom AG over the "last mile", i.e. the cable
laid within cities, below streets, in homes. Currently QSC and Arcor delegate the task of actually connecting
their customers to the next DSLAM (if unknown, review http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_subscriber_line_access_multiplexer)
to Telekom out of necessity. It is rumored that Telekom handles it's own customers with priority, thereby maintaining
some unfair advantage. (see http://www.netzeitung.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/828154.html?Arcor_wirft_Telekom_Marktmissbrauch_vor)

All in all, the market is working pretty well, prices are continuously falling, while bandwidth is on the rise.
Some providers start to occupy niche positions, like improved privacy and censorship-free-internet (e.g. Manitu: www.manitu.de).

> I've argued recently that Swedish conservatives believe competition is a
> good solution for the net neutrality issue (instead of hard law) which i
> can see as being reasonably feasible provided you have a good,
> competetive market to begin with.
Apparently this can happen, as exemplified by Manitu.

> However, Spanish Telefonica is a
> perfect example of dysfunctional competition on the telecoms market,
> which means Swedish debaters are actually unknowledgeable and unable to
> globalise their thinking for all their fancy talking about european
> integration. what is worse is, bad business practises from other parts
> of europe may also sneak in through the "back door" if we don't create a
> strong user-friendly regulation on EU level.
Agreed.

> Catch what I' getting at?
Best current guess: We either need to ensure that a working market will be created or we need to regulate for user interests directly.

Jens
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