The Financial Times reports that “Viviane Reding, the EU media commissioner, this week cited the decision to split the networks and services division of BT of the UK as a potential template for other former state-run telecoms operators. Her controversial suggestion, which has been criticized by big telecom operators and some EU officials alike, goes to the heart of a debate on how to spur investment in new ultra-fast broadband networks to meet European business and consumer hunger for bandwidth.”
In more news from the European regulatory front, CNetNews.com writes that “[n]ew competition guidelines in Europe are set to put outsourcing deals under greater scrutiny by European Commission regulators. The Commission’s latest updated guidelines–and its interpretation of the 1990 Merger Regulation, which defines the Commission’s regulatory role for mergers–now include a section on how an increasing number of joint-venture outsourcing deals can fall under the terms of the Merger Regulation.”
According to Yahoo!News, “[t]he world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, which assembles gadgets from Apple Inc. iPods to Sony Corp. PlayStation 3 consoles and Nokia Corp. handsets, became the latest company to announce a high tech investment in Vietnam, with plans to spend a massive $5 billion over the next five years. […] The huge investment shows that Vietnam has continued to increase its allure as a haven for IT investments.”
Wired in its August issue has a scorecard on who is suing Google and why.
The Guardian writes that “Apple made its first foray into British television yesterday, and immediately found itself facing questions over the costs of its video downloads, which observers said were forcing British consumers to pay much higher prices than their US counterparts. […] Apple refused to comment on how it arrived at the video download prices. The European commission this year decided to investigate the company over the pricing of iTunes tracks. That inquiry was prompted by a complaint from the consumer group Which? claiming that variations in cost and availability of music downloads from country to country were unfair to consumers.”