An exciting night--EU Commissioner Liikanen visits People's Daily Online

EU Commissioner for Enterprise and Information Society Erkki Liikanen visited People's Daily Online on the evening of June 22.

Liikanen and Yu Ning, deputy editor-in-chief of People's Daily, at the "Strong Country Forum"

At the "Strong Country Forum" of People's Daily Online, Mr. Liikanen chatted with netizens under the theme "the next-generation communication technology & regulatory and industrial policy".

During his more than one hour online communication with netizens, Mr. Liikanen answered 50-strong questions concerning the prospects of next-generation communication technology, the construction of e-government, the application of 3G and network security.

Talking about the research and application of 3G in Europe, Mr. Liikanen said that Europe started 3G R&D quite early, and has made progress in its application. This technology was firstly used in enterprises to link managers with sales data and help them report work to their department. Besides, this technology can connect doctors and nurses with hospitals. It can also be used in people's life to give them timely accession to information in the fields of sports, entertainment, family and community, and satisfy their desire to communicate through pictures, images and sound.

In 2003 some European operators had put out their 3G service, Mr. Liikanen further explained, predicting that more personal users will appear this summer. The 3G technology will in future not only provide solutions to enterprises, but also approach individuals. For example, the Athens Olympic Games this year will see much 3G application and Liikanen believes that the technology would be a common thing when Beijing hosts the Games in 2008.

Mr. Liikanen expressed his view on the 3G R&D of China--for China, now it is the best time to develop the technology, and the best chance will be missed if the country acts late.

When asked "how to guarantee the security of communication technology, Mr. Liikanen gave five suggestions. First, we should adopt the new generation Internet, for it carries more compulsory security measures. Second, countries should strengthen cooperation in fighting cyber crimes. Third, Europe has set up a regulatory committee of Internet security, and this special organization will work together with other countries to jointly guarantee online security. Forth, we should draft laws to protect users' privacy and prevent the occurrence of junk mails. Fifth, users need to know how to protect their personal information.

Mr. Liikanen at the "Strong Country Forum" of People's Daily Online.

Mr. Liianen also briefed European measures to protect minors from unhealthy online content. The first way is to punish those providing unsound information by law, the second is to offer filters to parents to reduce its influence on youngsters.

Commenting on the news that EU is canceling public telephones, Mr. Liikanen's suggestion to China's public telephones is that they can be cancelled as long as people no longer need them. In EU, the use of mobile phones has reached 100 percent, so public phones are no longer in use. In some big Chinese cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, the coverage of mobiles have exceeded 80 percent, and public phones may lose their use if the percentage continues to rise. But in some remote areas of China, such as the countryside, public phones may function for a long period to come.

Looking into the developing trend of communication technology in the coming two or three decades, Mr. Liikanen pointed out that a technological integration will appear in the ten years to come, which includes the integration of mobile, computer and digital TV technologies.

At the end of the online chat, Mr. Liikanen expressed his feeling by "a very exciting night". "Thank you very much for giving me such an exciting night. Of course, my meeting with ministers are also significant. But this night, for me, is exciting. I thank our online readers for their high-quality questions".

By People's Daily Online