Vodafone response to the public consultation by ... - BEREC - Europa

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Security is also an important concern for many private users. A recent survey 12 from the European Commission based on Eurostat data shows that over two thirds of internet users are mildly or strongly concerned about a number of security issues related to the use of the internet including: viruses, spam emails, phishing, privacy violations, fraudulent payments and the use of the internet by children. These issues limit some of the more productive uses of the internet such as ecommerce, e-banking and electronic access to public services. The same survey shows that over 20% of internet users have not benefited from electronic banking services or bought anything on-line specifically because of these concerns. In addition, for some internet users they may represent a key obstacle to accessing the internet at all. In this area, broadband providers and many internet companies are already active in preventing security issues by filtering at both network and application level most common and lethal viruses and the great majority of spam activity. However, more should be done particularly by social network applications to inform and allow users to protect better their privacy and the information that they are sharing on-line. This is also an area where the advent of smartphones and tablets will help users to gain the necessary confidence in using broadband for more activities previously perceived as risky. In general, smartphones and tablet are more secure than traditional PC-based internet access, and perceived so by users, thanks to higher quality control on the applications available and the better resilience of the software to virus attacks. Educating current and prospective on-line users is also important to eliminate the widespread misconception that on-line payment transactions are less secure than the same transactions in the off-line world. On-line payment tools are actually more secure for the end-user than high-street card payments thanks to the protection mechanisms put in place by the providers. In addition, the majority of the fraudulent transactions tend to affect the merchants rather than the end-users. E-government (or better on-line access to public services) can be an important factor in promoting the use of broadband. This does not need to be run via expensive top-down projects, but rather by allowing citizens to perform tasks currently only off-line via the internet. It is often the case that the most effective e-Government initiatives are the ones implemented to increase overall efficiency of the public sector, but that have also the positive side-effect of stimulating demand for internet services. Eurostat numbers show that properly run on-line tax declaration systems, now common in every EU country, could be very effective in increasing not only the number of citizens using them, but also indirectly to stimulate non-internet users to go on-line. For example, in Portugal despite a relatively low percentage of internet users (58%), a high percentage of citizens (48%) have submitted their tax declaration on-line. This number is particularly large if compared to only 31% of users that have done any shopping on-line. Other effective ways the public sector can use include: � On-line availability of information on local services, functions and transports � Possibility to obtain certificates and perform different types of registrations on-line � Access public health services (e.g. booking of medical visits, information on hospitals, etc.) � Promotion of the use of electronic certified mail for official communication with the public sector institutions and services 12 See http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/digital-agenda/scoreboard/docs/pillar/security.pdf 8
All statistics from the Commission mentioned in the previous paragraphs show that the overall picture of broadband take-up and general internet use is broadly positive. While still gaps and differences between age, income, education groups and countries still remain, all segments show positive growth in terms of take-up and usage. This means that it is not yet clear if government initiatives to stimulate demand are necessary or if technological and market trends will simply solve the issues by themselves. In 2010, Vodafone has asked to Plum 13 to look at the demand side measures that could be put in place to stimulate demand. The market trends and technological developments mentioned above show that large scale measures may not be needed anymore, but the recommendations to Governments contained in the paper are still valuable: � Governments should target incentives in a more systematic and rigorous way. Above all they need to make rigorous, ex -post evaluations of effectiveness a condition for funding programmes of demand-side measures � They should look critically at programmes of demand-side measures aimed at the over 25s who are poorly educated before funding them. When based around traditional technologies such programmes are costly and slow to take effect � In dealing with this group Governments should take advantage of current market trends such as the take-up of mobile broadband and smartphones, the introduction of Internet access via televisions and ebook readers, the move from browsers to applications, and the trend towards cloud computing. These all reduce the skills needed to use the Internet and the cost to end users of doing so. They should refuse to fund programmes which fail to take account of these trends � In general they should give the 25 to 54 year age group higher priority than the over 55s. The former group will be Internet users for longer and, once users themselves, can potentially support their parents to become Internet users � To deal with affordability barriers, governments should design universal broadband policies which allow non-users to choose appropriate broadband packages from fixed and mobile offerings. This may mean switching subsidies from the supply-side to the demand-side � Governments should encourage the development of services which allow those currently without debit or credit cards to carry out e-transactions. Fast broadband – supply side issues A large part of the current public policy debate in the electronic communications sector is dedicated to identifying the best way to facilitate investment in new fast broadband services mainly based on fibre-optic networks. The substantial investment involved and economic unsustainability of network duplication (i.e. natural monopoly is likely in most areas) require innovative ways to guarantee competition and ensure investment. Vodafone’s views on the matter are well-known. We believe that the best solution are co-investment initiatives where the market participants share the risk 13 See http://www.vodafone.com/content/dam/vodafone/about/public_policy/policy_papers/public_policy_series_10.p df 9
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Vodafone response to the public consultation by ... - BEREC - Europa

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