ePrivacy - overlooking the technicals

As we normally confine ourselves to issues surrounding Data and IP related telephony I had quite forgotten about this:
On 14 April 2009 the European Commission launched an infringement proceeding against the UK concerning incorrect transposition in UK law of EU law requirements concerning confidentiality of communications provided in the ePrivacy Directive 2002/58/EC and the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC concerning user consent, sanctions in case of infringements and independent authority to supervise interception activities. On 29 October, further to analysis of the UK authorities' response to the letter of formal notice, the Commission proceeded to the next stage of the Reasoned Opinion.

The bottom line is that "There is no legal requirement for UK mobile customers using pre-paid cards (‘pay as you go’ customers) to register with their operators."

It was only this weeks announcements about the scrapping of the much hated ID cards here in the UK that reminded me.

Not usually one for infringement of civil liberties - I think this is wrong-headed, there are plenty of ways of 99% positively identifying an individual ; passports, drivers licenses, credit cards et al.  ID cards were just a 'doomed from birth' knee-jerk reaction to 9/11and given that contracts worth over £1bn possibly some fierce lobbying.  But, untraceable mobile communications are a standard tool of the underworld, from your friendly neighbourhood 'hoody' drug dealers to international terrorists and every shade in between; and isn;t it just bizarre that as countries like Mexico and Brazil are moving to force registration of all mobile devices, 'uber-liberal' Europe is going the other way?!

Bit like the economy :-(

BT £9m Pension deficit slams stock price

BT unveiled profits from operations up this quarter, mostly off the back of improvements in the group known, or formerly known, as BT Global Services, which is good, yes?! Well no they they also announced a pension deficit of £9Bn, for those of you in Metric that's €10.2Bn or in greenbacks $14Bn.  They said they were going into a 17 year recovery plan.

A 17 year recovery plan!!  This is a company that has been in recovery since 2001 when it finally figured out that it had a £30bn debt mountain.  Whilst smaller atthe time France Telecom and DT where quietly beavering away being modern Telcos BT and their arch rivals CW seemed to lose the plot completely, determinedly launching and relaunching on the International markets, in ever more crazy, expensive and vain-glorious attempts to out AT&T, AT&T. 

You have to feel for the current BT management team who will be cleaning up Sir Peter Bonfields mess for another 20 years.

Nokia N97: Upsetting the Apple Cart.

Nokia have apparently upset a few of their carrier partners by shipping a native Skype client on the new N97 mobile computer, well what did they expect? that Nokia's flagship mobile communications platform was going to leave out a key communications component. People are finding a way to get VoIP on iPhone, I use Fring, it's great, I can chat to people in the message window and if I really need to I can speak/crackle at them free; great for me I have a software developer in Brisbane.

Operators cannot turn back the tide, or squeeze the Genie back into the bottle. Nokia are right to offer it because if they don;t they will lose share to someone who will. If service provider doesn;t want to carry the N95, it's a free country... But one of their competitors will, that's a free market...

I switched to iPhone because my old Communicator lacked features the N97 now has. Though Mac compatibility may remain an issue, I don;t know yet.

Commercially the service providers are right to resist, and try to limit the leakage of voice minutes; they have shareholders and jobs to protect. But, in the longer term they must find a model that accommodates all aspects of ubiquitous and free Wireless Internet.

Maybe it's to charge a small fee for providing high quality long-distance backhaul for mobile VoIP users. Now, I'd pay for that.