This morning I gave a speech to the Intellectual Property Summit in Brussels – on the need for openness and standards if Europe is going to take a large share of the future internet services market. The questions after the speech also provided an interesting link to the rest of my day – discussing with Europe’s telecoms ministers about the future of mobile roaming.
Back to the speech about open innovation methods. I firmly believe in this. I’m backing it through the EU’s Future Internet Public Private Partnership.
The next stage of the digital revolution is clearly the combination of mobile internet, cloud computing and billions of sensors to deliver a new generation of “smart” services. These technologies really will be a passport to a better way of living. But Europe will end up playing the second league of these markets if we don’t make good use of open platforms and standards to drive up competition. If we do embrace openness – the systematic use of generic and standardised technologies to create a level but elevated playing field to trigger cutting-edge innovation on top – I think we will be well placed to capitalise on our current leadership in mobiles, telecom, hardware and embedded software. And that means Europeans will take a bigger role in internet innovation.
I suspect that argument might be a tough sell to some Intellectual Property lawyers, but I am convinced that IPR and common platforms can peacefully co-exist. (see my full speech)
After the talk somebody asked me whether I supported Copenhagen and other cities moving to offer free WiFi. The questioner was (openly) hinting that free WiFi could be a platform for creativity and innovation in its own right. I couldn’t agree more. While I said there is no true ‘free lunch’ in my answer, I agree that if WiFi is made free of charge to end customers, or is affordable, it is a boon in more than one way. It’s especially good for tourists and business-people, and frankly commonsense for big cities that rely on such travellers to stimulate their economies. With the average data roaming retail price at €2.60 per MB, there are millions who would benefit from free or competitively priced WiFi across Europe. And if more and more big cities took up this idea it would surely be a wake-up call to mobile operators who still benefit from high data roaming prices.
This is the key point actually: this WiFi question is also related to roaming, and that overlap shows us why we need a holistic Digital Agenda.
Roaming is an issue that comes up time and time again on social media and in my meetings. For example, I met with some young innovators at a recent conference and one of them –explained to me the idea of a ‘WiFi-roaming’ switching application. In simple terms, it is a convergence platform that provides “in-call handover” – so you are seamlessly switching from the mobile network to WiFi whenever possible while continuing to use your phone (and your number!) as usual. That is the sort of creativity I find really inspiring.
Now I’m heading into the lunch with Telecoms Ministers where we will discuss the best way to stimulate competition in roaming services, including whether we need to add a retail price cap for data (as we currently have with voice and SMS) .
The main point I will be making is that competition still isn’t working as it should (despite the lower prices we’ve been able to achieve through regulation). Why? Because we don’t have a true single market for telecoms and this is something price regulation on its own is unlikely to solve, however welcome it might be in the short term. I am glad to see eye-to-eye on these matters with the Belgian Presidency of the EU.
This is also where the question I received this morning re-enters the picture… Perhaps good WiFi networks could being to be at least a partial alternative for getting around the lack of competition in roaming markets. Especially for frequent data roamers.
I will keep you updated about the outcome of the Telecoms Ministerial meeting and our consultations on roaming.
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