about-electronics.eu

BBC: The European Commission is calling for a suggested maximum volume to be set on MP3 players, to protect users’ hearing.

The commission wants all MP3 players sold in the EU, including iPods, to share the same volume limits.

This follows a report last year warning that up to 10m people in the EU face permanent hearing loss from listening to loud music for prolonged periods.

EU experts want the default maximum setting to be 85 decibels, according to BBC One’s Politics Show. Users would be able to override this setting to reach a top limit of 100 decibels.

In January, a two-month consultation of all EU standardisation bodies will begin on these proposals, with a final agreement expected in the spring.

Some personal players examined in testing facilities have been found to reach 120 decibels, the equivalent of a jet taking off, and no safety default level currently applies, although manufacturers are obliged to print information about risks in the instruction manuals.

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Electronista: In some good news for local cell phone manufacturers, the European Union’s plan to introduce new taxes for handsets sold throughout Europe has been scrapped, says a Wednesday report.

The new taxes would have raised prices customers pay for new phones and most likely lowered the sales numbers of an already falling market. The decision came from Sweden, which hosts the rotating presidency of the EU, and will mean the Customs Code Committee will continue to treat cell phones as duty-free items.

The proposed tax plan, presented in December, had smartphones reclassified as “multi-functional devices,” which would add a 14 percent tax to handsets with TV receivers and 3.7 percent to those equipped with GPS capabilities. As expected, phone manufactures opposed the tax, with local phone giants Nokia and Sony-Ericsson especially vocal on the issue.

Companies like Apple would have been affected as all iPhone 3G and 3GS phones have built-in GPS receivers. The taxes and resulting drop in sales would supposedly put workers at risk in Europe, as many handset makers operate manufacturing plants in countries that include Britain, Finland, Hungary, Romania and Estonia.

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TechDigest: It will be mini-USB and should go some way to reducing the absurd number of chargers that end up in landfills every year. The 10 companies who control 90% of the European phone market have signed a deal which will see mobile phone chargers become universal by 2010.

The group, which includes Apple, Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, LG and NEC, has agreed to a harmonisation that will see mobile phones charged by mini-USB adaptors.

The move is not only good for people who have drawers full of various charges – it’s great news for the environment too. Every year there are 185million phones sold in the EU and therefore around 185million chargers as well. The majority of these chargers become useless after upgrading to a new phone – even, in some cases, if users stay with the same brand.

The idea is that, after an unspecified time following the release of the universal charger, chargers and phones will be sold separately. The move only applies to smartphones and is only for the EU at the moment. Hopefully, the rest of the world will follow suit soon after. They should do – not only would it save them money because they won’t have to manufacture and package chargers for every phone they sell (I can’t see them reducing the price of phones just because it ships without a charger) it will also be good for their green-credentials.

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Electronista: The European Commission today pressed music labels on switching to a Europe-wide licensing strategy for music that would let Apple and others run stores for the entire continent.

Citing early agreements with EMI as well as French agency SACEM, antitrust Commissioner Neelie Kroes argues that labels need to follow suit and switch from their current country-by-country approach, which forces iTunes and other stores to segregate their audiences and musicians to collect pay through local agencies rather than a single source.

EU regulators have expressed concerns that this fencing-off of music sales has let them have too much control over prices and other terms in certain countries. Apple, at least, has publicly stated its willingness to move to a whole-Europe iTunes store if it can arrange deals with necessary labels and has agreed in the meantime to standardize prices in Europe and the UK when possible.

Some musicians have also publicly objected with worries that they may actually miss out on revenue through the deal, though changes in royalty rates haven’t been described as part of the unified store effort.

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Guardian: A row has broken out between the European commission and the International Telecoms Union (ITU) over Europe’s decision to take unilateral control of which satellite operators can broadcast in member countries.

Tomorrow the EU will award 18-year licences to two satellite operators, giving them an effective duopoly over the use of what is termed the ‘S band’, which can be used for services such as satellite broadband.

But many in the industry have warned that the commission’s move could hinder technological development within the EU and cause interference with other satellite signals, as well as damage a system that successfully functioned throughout the cold war.

“The commission process, if it goes ahead, is likely to set an ugly precedent that will ultimately destroy the fabric of international satellite communications and co-operation that has taken several decades to evolve,” one satellite operator said.

“What is to stop the Russians or other nations in Africa from unilaterally authorising their own systems to provide global coverage without co-ordinating with neighbouring countries? If all nations followed the commission process, then the end result is likely to be such interference that no satellite will be capable of operating.”

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Telegraph.co.uk: Giant flatscreen televisions have been dubbed the ’4x4s’ of the living room because they can consume four times as much energy as traditional televisions. Now European governments are finalising a mandatory EU regulation to set minimum standards for televisions. The worst performers will be phased out, and the rest will have to be labelled with energy ratings.

Britain has 60 million television sets, one for every person in the country. In the past five years the main television in many households has changed from being a 24-32in cathode ray model to a 32-42 flatscreen television.

Power consumption goes up as the screens increase in size, so a big plasma model could use four times as much electricity and be responsible for the emission of four times as much carbon dioxide as the biggest CRT, and they account for twice as much as a fridge-freezer.

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Techradar: The EU’s consumer protection division is set to crack down on rogue mobile phone companies offering so-called ‘free’ games and ringtone services to entice younger mobile users into signing up for costly monthly contracts.

Additionally, the UK’s telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding has called for the cost of data roaming and sending text messages when abroad to be more than halved.

Meglena Kuneva, head of the EU’s consumer protection division has called for national regulators to take legal action against rogue ringtone and mobile game subscription services.

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PC Advisor: European Telecommunication Commissioner Reding wants to hand half of all radio spectrum that becomes available when TV switches from analogue to digital transmission – the so-called digital dividend – to mobile and wireless networks by 2010.

Speaking after addressing the 27 telecom ministers of the EU at a meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday, Viviane Reding said distributing the newly available radio frequencies quickly and efficiently is vitally important.

“Let me make a very bold proposal: let us agree to allocate, by 2010, 50 percent of this digital to new mobile and wireless services. This would allow us to turn the dream of broadband for all Europeans into a reality, while at the same time allowing enough space for commercial and public broadcasters to develop and offer new and more modern TV services,” Reding said.

Distributing radio spectrum is an essential element in Reding’s reform package for Europe’s telecom regulatory regime. She has faced pressure from all sides, including from broadcasters, who want to keep the lion’s share of frequencies in the TV industry.

Reding announced her 2010 target date for the distribution of radio spectrum during the first formal discussion of her reform package with telecom ministers. One of her key plans – the creation of a powerful central telecom regulator for the EU – was dismissed by the ministers.

But other elements of the package won widespread support, including her plan to punish former telecom monopolies that fail to give rivals fair access to their networks by forcing them to separate their network operations from their services units.

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The Register: An EU aviation safety project is testing a camera-based passenger surveillance system intended to spot terrorists poised to rush the cockpit.

According to a report in the New Scientist, the European Union’s Security of Aircraft in the Future European Environment (SAFEE) project relies on video cameras being built into every passenger’s seat. Rumours of such aircraft anti-hijack systems have been flying around since the 11 September attcks.

Each camera tracks passengers’ facial expressions, with the footage then analysed by software to detect developing terrorist activity or potential air rage. Six wide-angle cameras are also positioned to monitor the plane’s aisles, presumably to catch anyone standing by the cockpit door with a suspiciously crusty bread roll.

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ComputerWeekly: The government is planning a massive database to hold the details of citizens’ phone calls, e-mail messages and internet sessions, reports the Times, as part of the fight against crime and terrorism.

ISPs and telecoms companies would be forced to hand over the records to the Home Office under the plan, says the paper.

The information would be held for at least 12 months and the police and the security services would be able to access it after getting permission from the courts.

Home Office officials are said to have discussed the option of the national database with telecoms firms and ISPs, in the run up to a data communications bill set to appear in November’s Queen’s Speech.

The scheme is an extension of the EU directive adopted on comms record keeping which has been in force since last Octobe

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InformationWeek: The European Union approved cell phone calling for commercial airline flights Monday, but the French and the Germans immediately were at loggerheads on the issue. Air France has already introduced onboard cell phone service while Germany’s Lufthansa said its customers don’t want the service.The EU plan would enable passengers to use cell phone voice service over base stations situated on airplanes once flights have reached an altitude of 10,000 feet. “In-flight mobile phone services can be a very interesting new service, especially for those business travelers who need to be ready to communicate wherever they are,” said EU telecommunications commissioner Viviane Reding, according to media reports.

Reding, who has long pressured cell phone service providers to lower their roaming rates, immediately served notice that if pricing for in-flight calls is too high, providers will hear from the EU.

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CNNMoney: The European Commission is expected to approve personal navigation device manufacturer TomTom NV’s proposed acquisition of map maker Tele Atlas NV and open an in-depth inquiry into Finnish mobile telecoms group Nokia Oyj’s planned buy of digital map maker Navteq Corp.

A legal source told Thomson Financial News that the TomTom/Tele Atlas deal should be cleared on or before the deadline of May 5, even though there are ‘clearly vertical competition concerns’.

The commission opened an in-depth inquiry into the deal in November after its initial market investigation indicated that the proposed merger raised serious doubts with regard to vertical competition concerns. Since then, the commission extended the deadline for the inquiry at the parties’ request.

‘This seems to be a concentrated market at upstream level and access to data will be a key issue in terms of remedies,’ the source said.

‘The commission obviously has suggested serious concerns (about the deal) but they should be addressable through making data available to third parties.’
The source said the key factor in negotiations over potential remedies will be assessing how to preserve the companies’ value.

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