Beaming into InfoSoc after stint at helm of Enterprise: Fabio faces the future

Date: 07/11/02

In the latest of a series of interviews with European Commission directors-general, Peter Chapman meets Fabio Colasanti, head of DG Information Society

WHEN Fabio Colasanti took over the reins of the European Commission's information society directorate in July, he wasn't entering an entirely alien world.

As a young man, the Italian worked at the cutting edge of the telecoms and IT sector - well, sort of.

After completing his education in London at the end of the swinging Sixties, when it was the height of cool to be 'Fab', the future Eurocrat traded in his flared trousers for a suit. He found himself a job at Italcable, a company which owned under-sea telephone cables linking Italy to Latin America.

Thirty years on, and things have changed a bit, laughs the genial director-general - who moved to InfoSoc after a short stint in charge of the enterprise directorate and a spell as deputy chef de cabinet to Commission President Romano Prodi.

'The only advantage that this previous experience gives me is to measure the amount of progress that has taken place since.

'In the Seventies, we had about ten lines between Italy and Brazil and about six with Argentina. This was the world of telecommunications.'

No doubt, more than a few redundant chief executives who failed to cope with the bursting of the telecoms bubble will look back on the 'good old days' with nostalgia.

But Colasanti is more upbeat than many of the casualties nursing huge losses from over-ambitious investments in new-wave networks such as '3G' mobile.

'There are a lot of problems that need to be looked at,' he admits. 'But essentially, telecoms remains a profitable business.

'It is a sector with big deficits - a lot of debt and over-investment that needs to be worked through. But by and large the market is growing. We would like more competition and we will have to make sure that the rules are applied that ensure the long-term development of the sector.

'But all the difficulties must be seen against an underlying trend that is positive.'

Lubricating IT

It's not just the EU's multi-billion-euro telecoms sector that is concentrating the minds of Colasanti and his new team.

Phone networks - in all their modern guises - are just one part of the picture. IT - from semiconductors to sensors - is also a key component in the InfoSoc dossier.

'Convergence', the digital technology that allows previously stand-alone equipment such as televisions and computers to be linked via the internet or radio signal, has joined telecoms and IT at the hip.

Or as Colasanti puts it, the telecoms bit is increasingly becoming the 'lubricant that allows the IT to permeate the whole economy'.

Which is why he says it is 'more correct' to talk about the broader information and communications technologies (ICT) sector, rather than simply IT. In the hi-tech world, it is important to get your jargon right.

Challenges ahead

So what are the challenges for Europe's most senior ICT bureaucrat? He is overseeing the EU's eEurope 2005 initiative - the latest in a set of policy objectives, benchmarking exercises and targets lumped together to keep the EU chugging along the information superhighway. His staff have just finalised the latest 'implementation report', keeping tabs on the way member states are applying the Union's current telecoms laws.

But a key part of the eEurope strategy is also to oversee the implementation of new rules for the communications industry that member states must start to apply next year - the legacy of Colasanti's predecessor, Robert Verrue.

One aspect of this is to trim the number of legal measures that were adopted to prepare forliberalisation of markets in 1998. Now that competition has taken hold, the new package concentrates on ensuring fair play in the remaining bottlenecks where only a few companies wield market power.

The Commission battled for, and won, a veto over measures by national regulators that would harm the single market. This is expected to cut national red tape and make it easier for companies to operate from Helsinki to Athens.

The Commission, however, did not get the right to block the way national authorities dole out scarce space on the airwaves known as 'radio spectrum' - not even after greedy national treasuries jeopardised the launch of 3G by charging billions of euro for the right to offer services.

Nevertheless, Colasanti says the new framework promises to give future generations of wireless applications a better chance of getting off the drawing board and on to the market place.

For example, it foresees the trading of spectrum between different operators - a step that will make it easier for firms that have sunk huge sums into 3G licences to exit markets, and for others to enter.

'This is a very complex issue that needs to be examined. We are launching a study to examine certain aspects of the issue,' he adds.

The deal for radio spectrum will also boost cooperation on all spectrum issues between member states and the Commission.

A high-level group of national officials will meet regularly to discuss common positions for spectrum use - for decades a jealously guarded national prerogative.

'When the auctions for 3G took place we were in the environment where people said 'Commission, stay out of this. Don't even dream of telling us anything'. Now we are in a situation where any adjustment at least has to be discussed. It is like a lot of areas of Community policy,' says the Italian. 'Once there is consensus then you can have the rules.'

Across the spectrum

The new approach could help the EU in the regular World Radiocommunications Conferences, where countries thrash out deals, often with huge financial stakes, on which services can use what parts of the airwaves.

Future battlegrounds on spectrum at EU or global level do not just concern mobile technology, he says.

'Take the 24 gigahertz band. There is the possibility of developing radar systems that might help drivers and other systems that might maintain distances between cars. At some times this frequency is also used by others such as public services.

'How do you allocate it to this service or that? The world of wireless is developing rapidly. The number of applications that would like to use [spectrum] are increasing so there are increasing numbers of dilemmas like this. When it comes to frequencies, there are big industrial policy issues. But you have to make sure services use the same frequency across Europe or the world. You don't want the situation where your radar only works in the Benelux countries.'

There is, of course, a lot more to Colasanti's job than fretting about the success or failure of 3G mobile or radar services. The spread of 'broadband' technology is seen as vital by DG InfoSoc.

'There are a lot of people, who, rightly, say that we will only see the full effect of the internet when we have a wider use of broadband. It is much more than a faster internet. It is faster; but it's so much faster that it changes the way you use the internet.'

But, as with 3G, the supply of content that people actually want to use is just as vital as the technology itself.

COLASANTI admits there is a Catch-22 situation here: 'Everyone was convinced that as soon as you had the technology there would be many new services. But there is reluctance to develop these services until people see a market.'

A recent draft directive is nudging governments to improve the way vast arrays of public sector information - from maps to archives - are made available. Not just to the public, but to private sector firms which might see a business opportunity in repackaging it and putting it online.

But, arguably the most important challenge for Colasanti in his new job is to help secure the EU's long-term future in the ICT whole.

He is in charge of nurturing R&D that would have thrilled his fellow countryman Marconi - the founder of modern telecoms.

EU member states and MEPs have just settled on a budget of more than €3.8 billion for research in the sector over the next four years - part of the €17.5 billion '6th framework programme'.

It's not a huge amount compared with the funds member states, such as France and Germany, have at their disposal.

However Colasanti says EU cash can have a disproportionate effect because a lot of national funding often gets swallowed up by overheads such as employing professors and paying for the upkeep of laboratories.

In an economic downturn, EU cash also takes on more importance, as governments and industry tighten their purse strings.

'In every downturn that we have, firms will try to improve their bottom line and will be cutting either physical investment or research expenditure. Unfortunately,' says Colasanti, 'we may be in a situation where the system of corporate governance we have might amplify these effects.'

EU firms, like their US rivals, are under pressure to offer good financial results every quarter, even if that jeopardises their long-term health.

'It is an age-old debate,' he says with a shrug.

So, what does Colasanti plan to do with the money? There is the next generation of mobile phone technology for a start - not 3G, which is still struggling to get off the drawing board, but 4G.

The idea of looking so far ahead has been greeted with derision in some quarters. A recent article in the Financial Times was very dismissive of the idea.

Colasanti shrugs off such scepticism with a history lesson.

The 'memorandum of understanding' between industry on the basic technological specifications for 3G's precursor, GSM, was taken as far back as 1983 - and much of the R&D was completed well before then.

Similar decisions for the next wave of technology, then known as 'UMTS', were taken in the late 80s.

'So, clearly, research continues,' he insists. Other parts of Colasanti's high-tech vision for R&D would, at first glance, seem to owe more to Star Trek's Captain Kirk than to Marconi.

The Commission recently engaged the help of some hi-tech visionaries to predict what the future might hold - and, more importantly, how R&D might be focused to make it a reality. 'The phrase we use to sum it up is 'ambient intelligence',' explains Colasanti.

Tomorrow's working day

Imagine, he says with a twinkle in his eye, a businesswoman who has to fly abroad to give a presentation on behalf of her company. In her handbag is her most important possession - her smart personal communicator. (Credit cards will be redundant in 25 years' time).

'She lands at the airport and walks through customs: her personal communicator automatically provides information about her ID and visa.

'It directs her to her rental car, which requires no ignition key. She drives to the city guided by something better than the GPS [global positioning system] we have now.

'It automatically pays the road charges.

'She arrives at her hotel and is guided directly to her room. The light comes on.

'She is ready for a shower,' says Colasanti, tension building.

'She has a screen on her communicator that she uses to speak with her daughter. Then she starts working on her presentation for the next day until finally she receives a message that says she must undergo urgent treatment: to watch TV and have some medication a large gin and tonic.'

It might sound light-hearted and a touch fanciful, but this is the way research is heading, he says.

Other examples roll off his tongue - from the voice activated light switches to 'e-health' applications, where tiny computers in the body continually check on heart rates and warn doctors if there are problems.

Within the decade, European funded R&D will deliver working projects that do all the above and more. 'It is within reach. We are even planning the disappearance of the keyboard,' adds Colasanti.

The eEurope drive also aims to deliver short- and medium-term results.

For example, the EU is stepping up its involvement in the way the internet is run.

Summer 2003 will see the launch of the 'dot eu' - Europe's very own internet domain name. Public authorities have already been pre-registering domain names with the Commission. Private companies will get their chance to apply early next year. The Commission is currently sifting through applications from organisations wishing to run the new system. At the same time, Colasanti is looking for ways that the EU can influence the opaque world of internet governance.

This is led by the US dominated organisation ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), which has the ultimate say whether blocs such as the EU can set up their own internet names.

Colasanti says there is clearly a need to give Europe a greater say in the way the system operates. 'We are following very closely discussions that are taking place between the [US] Department of Commerce and ICANN. Essentially the bylaws of ICANN are being renegotiated. There are many problems - a lot of work needs to be done.

'We have to make sure that the interests of the wider world are taken care of,' says Colasanti. 'We shall be playing a more influential role in the ICANN governmental advisory committee. We consider that it is very important. There is a risk that the whole system might come to a standstill.'

Nobody wants that and the Commission is providing 'some secretarial support' to assist the negotiations. The EU executive is also backing efforts to develop the next generation of the internet - something known in the jargon as IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6).

'This will allow a dramatic increase in the number of available internet addresses. We are almost at an end under the current IP version 4,' explains Colasanti. 'In the world of ambient intelligence, you will need internet addresses for your fridge, not to mention all the other devices that will communicate among themselves'

Whatever next? At this very moment, a tiny spider runs across the desk between us. Colasanti suggests that the arachnid could in fact be a prototype InfoSoc listening device. 'You have your Minidisc recorder,' he smiles. 'That,' he says pointing at the spider, 'is how we keep check on you.'

It occurred to me that he might not have been joking.

Interview with Fabio Colasanti, head of DG Information Society.