Following various political delays and arguments over Internet piracy [1], the EU was able to push its newly proposed telecom rules through Parliament. Now that it has gotten a 'yes' vote during a European Parliament plenary session, the EU says the new rules will become law by mid-2011.

Among the many new rules in the directive is that incumbent service providers will have to keep their networks apart from the other lines of business--promoting competition as well as creating a European body of national regulators to penalize any anti-competitive practices. In addition to promoting competitive practices, the EU will foster more investments in fiber-based broadband and upgrading the radio networks.

For more:
- Wall Street Journal via Dow Jones has this article [2]

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