back to article How Brussels works: if you can’t beat them, join rewrite an EU directive

The biggest European telcos are poised to use Brussels to enact their revenge on American internet platforms, and on OTT providers like WhatsApp, the Eurocrats’ house journal The Financial Times claims. This isn’t exactly news, as a “sop to telcos” was exactly how we described what to expect last year, after we were leaked a …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    More regulation, less privacy. Who wins here? (hint: it's not the users!). The average user will keep using it and yet again be spied upon. The terrorists simply install an app not developed in a country following the silly E.U. regulation.

    This will cost money (the data will need to be stored again somewhere, they need to be able to process it and search it), reduce privacy and is unlikely to stop even a single terrorist.

    1. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

      Question

      "Terrorists"?

      I suppose terrorists need to make money too. In "Allo Allo" on TV the dreaded Communist Party Resistance to Nazi occupation of France was perpetually concerned with the party finances. Of course they were freedom fighters - except for the Communist thing "obviously".

  2. AMBxx Silver badge
    WTF?

    In other news..

    The new 5G spectrum awards will be for 25 years!!

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    More freedom to consolidate.

    They were already unhappy that telcos couldn’t create pan-European savings monopolies.

    FTFY

  4. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    "They care, but not enough to pay for it"

    And that is the crux of the problem in just about any domain where politics are concerned. Yes, people will always state that they agree to whatever good-for-the-public movement is proposed to them, especially when listening to the arguments, but then they get home and plop down on the sofa in front of the Tube and from that point on the only thing they can still think of is order pizza delivery.

    We truly have the society we deserve.

  5. Vimes

    described earlier this year as “the Daily Mail of the Europhile elite”

    By whom?

    In any case what exactly is wrong in extending rules that cover telcos to other organisations?

    Those other organisations provide much the same service as the telcos, and the only real difference is the manner in which the service is provided.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      described earlier this year as “the Daily Mail of the Europhile elite”

      http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Daily+Mail+of+the+Europhile+elite

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: described earlier this year as “the Daily Mail of the Europhile elite”

        The Spectator is hardly better than the Mail itself.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: described earlier this year as “the Daily Mail of the Europhile elite”

          "The Spectator is hardly better than the Mail itself"

          I used to read The Spectator, but under Johnson and Liddle it went downhill, in a Mailwards direction.

    2. CowardlyLion

      “the Daily Mail of the Europhile elite”

      >> described earlier this year as “the Daily Mail of the Europhile elite”

      > By whom?

      By Charles Moore in The Spectator...

      http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/04/de-gaulle-knew-it-britain-does-not-belong-in-the-eu/?_ga=1.147754167.1882574306.1456488948

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      'In any case what exactly is wrong in extending rules that cover telcos to other organisations?'

      Per se, nothing.

      The issue that as more choice and more competition is created by innovation, regulations based on preventing ex ante anti competitive behavior should become LESS relevant not more.

      By all means spread lighter touch regulation more widely and more thinly on similar services.

      However its not clear that with anti-roaming fees,price controls, net neutrality and more interventions in M&A that the reduction of the overall regulatory burden is happening. This leaves the infrastructure providers artificially subsidizing OTT players. Long term this means the incentive to invest in infrastructure is reduced.

      1. Vimes

        regulations based on preventing ex ante anti competitive behavior should become LESS relevant not more.

        This has absolutely nothing to do with competition, unless you see privacy as something that should only be enforced when particular types of services are being used.

  6. fnusnu

    Wrong final sentence.

    Should read:

    If Brussels reformed itself to become a “minarchist” apparatus, that would remove the incentives for both telcos and soap-dodgers to spend their time lobbying Brussels.

    Hence Brexit.

  7. Dan 55 Silver badge
    Alert

    How is OTT going to be defined?

    Whatsapp or similar linked to phone numbers?

    Skype or similar with its own ID?

    Just on mobile or on desktop too?

    Would IRC and UNIX talk be safe, if so, why?

    Etc... etc...

    1. Sir Sham Cad

      Re: How is OTT going to be defined?

      Shit that carries comms over the data network that the telco didn't monetise^W bundle.

      1. Down not across

        Re: How is OTT going to be defined?

        Shit that carries comms over the data network that the telco didn't monetise^W bundle.

        Without a doubt that is the telco thinking. However it is not like they're giving data for free. We already pay X amount to get Y GB of data per month.

    2. Preston Munchensonton

      Re: How is OTT going to be defined?

      Obviously, it depends on who pisses off the Telcos. There's bound to be regulatory creep with such broad regulations, such that the unintended consequences will annihilate any supposed benefit to the public good.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Aaaawwww, but as soon as you're done brexiting, you can show us Continentals how it's done, right?

    Please, do hurry, I can't wait to see the famed British efficiency at work.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @ Anonymous Coward

      "Aaaawwww, but as soon as you're done brexiting, you can show us Continentals how it's done, right?

      Please, do hurry, I can't wait to see the famed British efficiency at work."

      Well, in a very general and loose sense, there is no guarantee in life that you will achieve perfection in anything you do.

      But one thing is certain however and that is that whatever you are doing will stand a far greater chance of success if you are simply left to get on with it and don't have someone else constantly meddling and interfering with what you are trying to achieve and putting their two penn'orth in at every opportunity.

      1. Preston Munchensonton

        Re: @ Anonymous Coward

        But one thing is certain however and that is that whatever you are doing will stand a far greater chance of success if you are simply left to get on with it and don't have someone else constantly meddling and interfering with what you are trying to achieve and putting their two penn'orth in at every opportunity.

        True, true words. Sadly, I suspect the same sort of self-obsessed, officious nitwits will pop up in Blighty also, just on a smaller scale. There's really few places on the planet to just be and live free.

  9. my fingers stuck

    wats up

    this is all about telcos wanting more profit, nothing else, they still get their hands on our hard earned pennies because we have to use them to access the free services, and who gives a f.....k about them any way.

  10. my fingers stuck

    wats next

    so using their logic how about a extra tax on car users who dont use crappy rail services thereby reducing the profits of train operators, and those nasty people who make their own travel arrangements thus affecting travel agents and tour operators wallets.. where will it end

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: wats next

      Next...?

      [Most] Car owners have to pay VAT on their car purchase, their Car Tax once a year, they pay a duty on their fuel, they also pay VAT on the Fuel, they have to pay a compulsory MOT once a year, have to buy compulsory insurance with added insurance premium tax, there is sometimes a council residents permit required for parking, some tolls dotted around the country.

      There isn't much scope left for extra tax.

      1. IsJustabloke
        Stop

        Re: wats next

        "There isn't much scope left for extra tax."

        HMRC say: Challenge accepted!

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: wats next

          I'm so scarred that right now a civil servant is in a drunken or drugged up stupor, and whilst finishing his last line he has an epiphany, his eureka moment!

          A tax on your tax contributions!

          God help us all!

        2. Ripper38

          Re: wats next

          @ IsJustabloke: HMRC say: Challenge accepted! ... Hum! HMRC might look to the German govt. who,having already a whopping budget surplus, have just thought up another idea to make even more money: p̶u̶n̶i̶s̶h̶ ̶p̶e̶o̶p̶l̶e̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶d̶r̶i̶v̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶f̶o̶s̶s̶i̶l̶ ̶f̶u̶e̶l̶ ̶c̶a̶r̶s̶ Encourage people to buy electric cars.by adding a Green tax on petrol (Barrel price sinks; price at the pump stays the same)

  11. my fingers stuck

    wats next. part 27

    how about a smart meter that logs mileage, then sends out a monthly bill, the proceeds are then divied between the rail operators...

  12. NotBob
    Pirate

    Is it just me

    Or do those calculated losses sound like the old RIAA cries of losses to piracy?

    1. David Nash Silver badge

      Re: Is it just me

      Same old cries of "not fair".

      See also: Taxis vs. Uber. etc.

      Not that I am an Uber user (I thought for years we were warned off minicabs as unknown, unlicensed, etc) but it's the established operators being unwilling to change their business model while the world around them changes anyway.

  13. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    I'm shocked at the picture

    These brave men being forced to climb to dangerous heights ( > 0.345m ) without proper fall -arrest equipment to handle potentially dangerous flags.

    There needs to be an EU working height directive (flag handling subsection) to protect the safety of these workers.

    O course the UK will be exempt now that it has thrown off the oppressive Brussels regime and will be free once more to send small boys to stand on top of flag poles

  14. Slx

    It seems utterly unenforcible as there's a plethora of alternatives to mainstream apps at any given time.

    Also this is very unlikely to get past the European Parliament even if the commission proposes such a change. They're not really into spying on people at EP level.

  15. Alistair
    Coat

    on an equal footing.....

    Buy phone outright.

    head home

    nuke branded crap install from network vendor

    install CM/x

    <billed for ???>

    *just a wee thought*

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