EU Telecoms Commissioner
While serving in the European Commission under President Barroso, Viviane Reding found a relatively popular policy in lowering roaming charges of mobile phones when travelling within the European Union, stating: "For years, mobile roaming charges have remained unjustifiably high. We are therefore tackling one the last borders within Europe's internal market". Her legislation to cap roaming charges was approved by the Parliament in April 2007.
On 7 April 2006 the Commission launched the new ".eu" TLD for websites for EU companies and citizens wishing to have a non-national European internet address. This has proven popular with 2.5 million being registered by April 2007. It is now the seventh most popular TLD worldwide, and third in Europe (after .de and .uk).
Reding has also proposed that major European telecom companies be forced to separate their network and service operations to promote competition in the market. The companies, including France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom, would still own their networks but the separate management structure would be obliged to treat other operators on an equal basis in offering access to the network. This is opposed to separate ideas to force a full break up of such companies.
In 2008, the European Parliament voted to pass the "Telecoms Package" which would render the entire market a region into one market, making it easier to sell internet and phone services in EU, with the goal of making the telecom prices cheaper for customers in European Union. Among the many amendments to the proposal, amendment 138 was voted in favor with 574 votes for, and 73 against. This particular amendment requires any termination of internet subscription to be heard in front of a judge. Viviane Reding who has been known for consistently fighting for an open Internet - and particularly in 2010 resisting attempts by her colleague Commissioner Cecilia Malmström to censorship sites and block internet access and in 2012 over the ACTA discussion - favoured that amendment leading to the defeat of three-strikes policies such as those promoted in France with the Hadopi law.
Read more about this topic: Viviane Reding