EU Communicate Newsletter – June 2015
BT European Affairs Newsletter • June 2015 • www.bt.com/europeanaffairs
❱ EU Digital Single Market
Digital transformation lies at the heart
of economic and social renewal, offering
improved productivity and better
services for Europe’s citizens. The
European Commission’s Digital Single
Market strategy has to embrace this
transition, building on the strengths of
Europe’s digital and creative sectors,
and encouraging investment in new
infrastructure and services. In EU
Communicate we look at some concrete
examples of this transition in practice,
whether it is on the deployment of
superfast connectivity, broadband takeup, e-Commerce, or funding for startups. These examples illustrate several
themes which resonate for the Digital
Single Market debate, including the role of
competitive markets, open access regimes,
convergence and competition between
media and telecom platforms on premium
content, a culture of innovation and
technology, investment in infrastructure,
and public and private cooperation on
broadband and cybersecurity.
Adrian Whitchurch
VP European Affairs
❱ New cyber service for
large organisations
BT launched BT Assure Cyber, an advanced
security platform designed to offer
complete and comprehensive monitoring,
detection and protection against cyber
threats targeted at private sector and
government organisations.
BT Assure Cyber brings together event
data and telemetry from a rich variety
of sources including business systems,
traditional security controls and advanced
detection tools. It then determines how
serious a particular attack may be to an
organisation. Vulnerabilities and incidents
With the publication of the Digital Single
Market strategy, a new opportunity is
given to discuss and create a policy and
regulatory platform for Europe that
should stimulate industry, consumers
and government to get the best out
of the digital world. The DSM policy
approach should support growth in the
communications sector and the broader EU
economy, boost innovation and creativity
and maintain global competitiveness.
Asymmetries between telecoms operators
and PayTV providers are distorting
the market as bundling becomes ever
more important, and content the most
compelling element for consumers. By
extending the access principles of the
E-Communications Framework to content
bottlenecks, the EU can level the playing
field across sectors, achieve a better deal
for consumers and help stimulate fibre
demand.
The principles underlying EU telecoms
regulation and EU competition law are
basically sound. However, the challenges of
consolidation, convergence and of crossborder business service provision, industry
transformation require adjustments to the
E- Communications Framework to deliver
a more aligned, consistent regulatory
treatment of converging markets and
sectors.
Cross-border service provision to
businesses across the EU should be a key
focus of the Single Market. Regulatory
inconsistency and non-availability of
key wholesale access inputs mean large
business customers are still missing out
on the full productivity benefits of ICT.
An effective wholesale access to business
connectivity products (leased lines and
Ethernet) is the solution for achieving panEU competition.
Fibre deployment underpins the Digital
Single Market ,and is best served by
a policy framework which maintains
the pro-competitive and technologyneutral principles of the EU Framework,
and the approach laid out in the EC
Recommendation. An emphasis on
local access based on active fibre access
products helps drive vibrant retail
competition which in turn encourages
take-up.
Convergence between telecoms and
media gives rise to a similar need for policy
consistency and should be addressed.
which would previously have taken days,
even weeks, to investigate and respond
to, can now be identified and acted on
immediately. The aim is to enable security
analysts to focus their attention on the
threats which pose the most significant
risks to their organisations.
Mark Hughes, president of BT Security,
said: “Cloud computing and mobile
devices have the potential to make
organisations more agile, efficient and
competitive. They also introduce a
multiplicity of new security risks. “As
innovation in technology accelerates, so
must innovation and investment in the
security controls that protect sensitive
corporate assets from cyber attack.
Global dimension. The principles of an
open competitive Internal Market should
be extended to third countries, pursuing
reciprocal market opening and competition
in access in markets such as the US via TTIP.
Open trans-border data flows are core to
trade also.
IPR/Copyright reform policy needs to
strike the right balance between enabling
cross-border access, and respecting the
principles of territoriality, on which the
strength of Europe’s creative industry is
based.
BT Assure Cyber - comprehensive and
fully integrated cyber security for large
organisations
Helping organisations master that
changing cyber threat landscape is at the
core of the BT Assure Cyber proposition.
It’s all about rethinking the risk.”
BT Assure Cyber is available globally and is
fully scalable - to cater for private sector
and government organisations with a few
hundred endpoints to tens of thousands.
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BT European Affairs Newsletter • June 2015 • www.bt.com/europeanaffairs
❱ BT sets out ultrafast broadband vision – G.FAST
BT CEO Gavin Patterson set out the
company’s ambition to transform the UK
broadband landscape from superfast to
ultrafast.
He revealed that BT plans to deliver much
faster broadband for homes and small
businesses via a widespread deployment
of “G.fast”. This is an innovative
technology that BT will test in two pilot
locations starting this Summer.
G.fast will help BT deliver ultrafast speeds
of up to 500Mbps to most of the UK
within a decade. Deployment will start
in 2016/17, subject to the pilots being
successful.
Early tests show G.fast is capable of
delivering a range of speeds depending
on how close the technology is to a
customer’s premises. BT expects to offer
initial speeds of a few hundred megabits
per second to millions of homes and
businesses by 2020. Speeds will then
increase to around 500Mbps as further
industry standards are secured and new
kit is developed.
“BT is a world leader when it comes to
fibre innovation and we are excited about
the next stage in our story,” Patterson
said today. “We believe G.fast is the
key to unlocking ultrafast speeds and
we are prepared to upgrade large parts
of our network should the pilots prove
successful. That upgrade will depend
however on there continuing to be a
stable regulatory environment that
supports investment.
The two pilots will start this Summer
in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire and
Gosforth, Newcastle.
The latest of BT’s technical trials of the new
high-speed broadband technology, G.fast,
has just started.
BT is currently expanding the reach of
its fibre network by working with the
public sector across the UK. Its network
already passes almost 22 million premises
– around three quarters of the UK – and
is open to all communications providers
on an equal basis. Its expansion will help
the UK to boast 95 per cent coverage
for fibre broadband within the next few
years.
❱ Internet safety partnership ‘a huge success’
A total of 100 workshops has helped
bring internet safety to around 2,500
teachers, parents and children across the
UK.
The big 100 milestone is being celebrated
by BT and children’s charity Unicef UK
as they enter the second year of their
partnership “The Right Click: Internet
Safety Matters”.
The initiative aims to empower children
and young people to become confident
digital citizens and safely enjoy the
benefits of the internet.
It also aims to better equip teachers and
parents to help children achieve this
balance by providing them with the tools
to discuss internet safety openly with
their children. This includes how to stay
safe online and making sure children
understand the dangers of sharing
personal details and images.
The 100th workshop took place in
Hackney, London, where interim head
teacher Jo Smith said: “Online safety
is only set to grow as a discussion topic
between parents, teachers and children.
Through these workshops parents and
pupils are learning practical measures to
help children protect themselves online”.
BT volunteer Emma, centre,
demonstrates the way to internet safety
Feedback from the 100 events finds that
83 per cent of the children who attended
felt the workshops had helped them use
the internet more safely, and 92 per cent
of parents said they would work together
with their child to address any problems.
❱ Entries open for BT-backed tech awards
at the BT Tower in London, it’s the fifth
year of the Awards, which are organised
by e-accessibility charity AbilityNet and
supported by BT as part of our Connected
Society programme.
Last year, BuffaloGrid won the first BT
Ingenious Award for an innovative solarpowered phone charger to be used in
remote communities in Africa
Nominations have opened for the BTsupported Tech4Good Awards 2015
– celebrating people who improve the
world using digital technology. Launched
BT’s Connected Society programme
manager Anna Easton said: “ “We would
like to encourage entries in all categories
– and particularly to the BT Ingenious
Award. This was launched last year to find
new and innovative ideas that use the
power of communications to transform
the lives of people who need it most.
There are seven categories – including
IT Volunteer of the Year; Young People’s
Award; and BT Ingenious Award.
Last year’s winners included Peek, who
won the Digital Health Award for their
smartphone app that helps diagnose
cataracts in developing countries.
SpecialEffect won the Accessibility Award
for their work helping disabled people
play computer games, while BuffaloGrid
won the BT Ingenious Award for an
innovative solar-powered phone charger
to be used in remote communities in
Africa.
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BT European Affairs Newsletter • June 2015 • www.bt.com/europeanaffairs
❱ Award for 112 call
innovation
BT won an outstanding innovation award
for a service which helps the emergency
services get to incidents more quickly. It was
presented at the 112 Awards – dubbed the
European emergency services version of the
Oscars – at EENA’s Bucharest conference.
The Advanced Mobile Location (AML)
system was conceived by BT teams and
developed together with EE and HTC. It
allows 112 calls from mobile phones to be
pinpointed much more precisely.
BT Business 112 product manager John
Medland said: “About 60 per cent of calls
to the emergency services in the UK are
made from mobile phones, but the location
information from them is imprecise. “It
seemed crazy to us that the emergency
services were reliant on mobile phone
callers to tell them their exact location,
when increasing numbers of handsets had
excellent location derived from GPS or
wi-fi.”
Ian Johnston, the head of the 999/112
Data System team, and John, came up with
the idea and worked with Andy Miles in the
applied technology team at Adastral Park
and lead developers David Meiklejohn and
Stuart Goodman.
Initial agreement was given by all UK mobile
networks – and then we worked with EE and
HTC to develop the system. It’s now available
for emergency calls made on the EE network
on new HTC phones, and on O2’s network.
Other handset providers are testing, with
launches expected this summer.
John said: “We’re leading the way in Europe
with this system. There’s been huge interest
in it from other European emergency
services, as well as from further afield.”
❱ BT wins rights to
more live premier
league matches
BT have won exclusive live rights to 42
Premier League matches per season
from August 2016 for three years. The
new rights will see BT Sport show a live
Saturday evening game every Premier
League weekend from 2016-17 for three
seasons.
BT Consumer chief executive John Petter
said: “Having secured the prime evening
TV viewing slot, it will allow us to build on
our current Saturday programming and
appeal to an even larger audience.
We also have live rights to the FA Cup
for the next three years and live football
matches from top-flight European
leagues, including Germany’s Bundesliga,
Italy’s Serie A and France’s Ligue 1.
From 2015-16, BT Sport will now be the
only channel showing live action from
four key tournaments – Premier League,
UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa
League and the FA Cup.
John added: “We will announce how we
will offer these matches closer to the
start of the 2016-17 season and we’ll
continue to seek to make Premier League
matches as widely available and as
affordable as possible.
❱ BT’s big recruitment
boost for young people
BT is creating 1,000 new
apprenticeships and graduate jobs for
young people this year in a recruitment
boost for the UK. They will work in
a range of areas, including software
development, IT, engineering and digital
technology and are in addition to the
1,000 the company created last year.
BT also reiterated its commitment
to tackling youth unemployment by
providing up to 1,000 vocational
training and work experience
placements for out-of-work young
people in 2015-16.
A number of BT’s apprentices will also
begin new degree apprenticeships
starting this September, allowing them
to complete full Honours degrees while
working.
BT chief executive Gavin Patterson said:
“The UK’s future as a technology leader
hinges on young people getting the
skills, support and training they need
to create successful careers in science,
engineering and IT. “I’m thrilled that BT
will be offering so many opportunities
for apprentices, graduates and trainees
this year, and that they will start their
careers at such an exciting time in the
company’s history.
A large number of the apprenticeship
and graduate intake will be based at
BT’s Adastral Park research campus in
Suffolk, working on projects developing
the future of broadband, broadcasting,
wireless and mobile technologies. A third
of the new apprentices will be recruited
into Openreach.
❱ Judges award BT the security top spot
security vendors. Compiled by market
intelligence firm CyberSecurity Ventures,
the Cybersecurity 500 rankings have
historically been dominated by USheadquartered companies.
Mark Hughes, BT Security president
BT has been named the UK’s best
security company in a listing of top
BT Security president Mark Hughes said
the listing – which also ranks BT tenth
in the world – reflects the optimism and
attention that BT is generating in the US
and abroad.
“We’re thrilled to be named among the
world’s best security organisations,”
he said. “Security is at the heart of
everything we do at BT and this accolade
is a great reflection of the hard work
and dedication of our teams around the
globe, as well as our great pipeline of
innovation.”
Innovation was a key factor in BT’s win,
with the judges praising a number of
unique capabilities that are helping many
global companies prevent cyber-attacks.
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BT European Affairs Newsletter • June 2015 • www.bt.com/europeanaffairs
❱ BT launches ‘Cloud of Clouds’
resources hosted on their own private
clouds as well as on BT’s global cloud
platform and on the platforms of other
leading cloud providers.
BT announced a new generation of cloud
services that allow large organisations
around the world to connect easily and
securely to the applications and the data
they need, independently of where they
are hosted. They will empower customers
to integrate and orchestrate the IT
❱ Government minister
praises Superfast
Cornwall
Government Minister Ed Vaizey has
praised the ‘fantastic achievement’ of
Superfast Cornwall. It comes as a new
survey reveals four out of ten firms in the
county which can get the technology are
estimated to be using it.
The findings come from an independent
telephone survey which contacted more
than 2,200 businesses with access to the
new fibre network. It showed that 43
per cent of the businesses surveyed were
Melanie Posey, Research Vice President
at IDC said: “One size fits all’ does not
apply to cloud services. Enterprises
will be operating in diversified IT
environments and consuming more
and more cloud-based services from a
range of providers. Therefore, enterprise
customers need heterogeneous cloud
frameworks that support a range of
solutions tailored to different business
requirements. As such, BT with its ‘cloud
of clouds’ vision is well positioned
BT Broadband customers will get
Customers can manage their cloud
services using BT’s new cloud
management system, a single catalogue,
and they have the freedom of choice
to bring together the best services in
the cloud from BT and from world class
partners including Cisco, Equinix and HP.
Luis Alvarez, CEO, BT Global Services,
said: “In the future digital age, no
business will be successful unless it
makes the most of the cloud. CIOs ask for
choice and flexibility, trusted security
and the best know-how in the industry
to meet their business challenges.
using fibre broadband from a range of
internet service providers.
Digital Economy Minister Ed Vaizey
said: “Eighty per cent of UK homes and
businesses can now get superfast speeds
thanks to the Government’s rollout and
projects like Superfast Cornwall, and it’s
great to hear how this is transforming
Cornish businesses.”
BT director of Superfast Cornwall,
Ranulf Scarbrough, said: “The Superfast
Cornwall partnership has set the standard
across Europe for the rollout of fibre
broadband.
❱ BT returns to consumer mobile market
BT moved back into the consumer mobile
market by launching 4G deals for as
little as £5 a month for BT Broadband
customers. We have unveiled three bring
your own phone – SIM only – plans that
offer fast 4G on the UK’s biggest network
to guide enterprises into the nextgeneration of federated cloud IT.”
exclusive access to the best value 4G
tariffs, with discounts of up to 50 per
cent, compared with non-BT Broadband
customers. All plans include access to 4G
on the UK’s biggest network, unlimited
access to more than 5m BT Wi-Fi
hotspots, and free BT Sport App. Built-in
features for all tariffs include monthly
spending caps, parental controls and
ability to move between plans without
taking out a new contract.
John Petter, BT Consumer chief
executive, said: “Offering BT customers
the UK’s best value 4G deal is a great
way to start our journey towards reestablishing ourselves as a major player in
consumer mobile.
Cornish businesses are recognising the
opportunities offered by fibre broadband
Superfast Cornwall, a £132m partnership
between the European Union, BT and
Cornwall Council, is now carrying out
final works to the programme in order to
achieve fibre broadband coverage of 95
per cent.
❱ EU Affairs team
contact details
How to contact us
Adrian Whitchurch
VP European Affairs
++32 2 237 1718
adrian.whitchurch@bt.com
Till Kupfer
VP Trade and International Affairs
++32 2 237 1713
tilmann.kupfer@bt.com
Henk Mannekens
Manager European Affairs
++32 2 237 1757
henk.mannekens@bt.com
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