Public Policy Blog

On 26th March the director of Telefónica’s International Office, Carlos Lopez Blanco, spoke at an evening debate about data privacy. In discussion with Viviane Reding, European commissioner for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship, Sophie in ’t Veld, Dutch MEP vice-chairwoman of the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee, Peter Hustinx, the EU’s data protection supervisor and [...]

Within the framework of the European Instant Mobility project, Telefónica I+D is developing a series of applications designed to improve mobility in cities, for travellers and residents as well as for goods distributors and urban traffic managers. This activity is based on the use of technologies related to the so-called Internet of Things, applicable to [...]

As you all know, the review of the ITRs is a key issue in the ICT policy agenda for 2012 and highly debated in the international arena. Therefore, the association of the European Telecommunication Network Operators (ETNO), in co-operation with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), have announced a workshop entitled ‘Revising the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) – Preparations for WCIT 2012’ that will gather a range of high level speakers from across the globe, including speakers from the ITU, ISOC, the Council of Europe, the European Commission, USA and Telefónica, between others.

As indicated in a previous post, we were attending this meeting so here is a brief overview of the main discussions there. This meeting, opened by President Chinchilla of Costa Rica, attracted almost 1400 delegates from all parts of the world, being one of the most attended ever. The main topics discussed in Costa Rica [...]

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank, around one billion people – 15% of the world’s population – have some type of disability worldwide. According to the European Commission, “about 80 million people living in the EU have a mild to severe disability. The physical obstacles they face, such as gaining [...]

“Government should lead by example instead of dictating European models of regulation that could stall US-based growth and innovation in our thriving tech sector.” This quote, from Congressman Marsha Blackburn’s response to the recent release of the White House Privacy Report, is a good example of the concerns generated among some stakeholders in the US [...]

The European Data Protection Supervisor has recently published his Opinion on the EC proposals for review of the Data Protection legal framework, welcoming the proposed Regulation but saying that ‘we are still far from a comprehensive set of data protection rules on national and EU level in all areas of EU policy’. Telefónica also welcomes [...]

After having announced the launching of “Telefónica Think Big”, Telefónica continues its bet on the future bringing now the Wayra initiative to Europe. Telefónica will be inaugurating in London the Wayra program, the catalyst for technology projects that the company unveiled about a year ago and which is already successfully operating in Spain (Madrid and [...]

At the Cable Congress Policy Session on 7 March, Georg Serentschy made some interesting remarks on the incentives for high speed broadband roll, which hopefully announce an era of a more investment friendly regulatory climate in Europe. Mr. Serentschy is the head of the Austrian Regulator RTR and he is BEREC chair for 2012. He [...]

When all attendees to this meeting where expecting new gTLDs to be the star of the week, the announcement made by the US Commerce Department (NTIA – National Telecommunications and Information Administration) on the IANA (Internet Assigned Names Authority) contract has shadowed any other issue.