mocoNews - Mobile Content Bits: EU Telecoms Reform Delayed; UK Q4 Telecoms Revs; Vodafone Developer Contest

?EU's telecoms reform delayed: The European Commission's package of proposed telecoms reforms will now be delayed, thanks to a surprise vote by European parliamentarians who again refused to discard the so-called "three strikes" amendment that would force governments to get court permission before disconnecting illegal downloaders of copyrighted content. The package will now have to go to conciliation between Europe's key institutions. Despite being just one small part of the Telecom Package, the reintroduction of the amendment now threatens to prolong the package's implementation still further. The bill would variously give the European Commission more power to veto national telco regulators' decisions, create a new Europe-wide telco regulator called BEREC and the ability to separate telcos' infrastructure from their other businesses in extreme circumstances. Read more at paidContent.co.uk.

?UK's Ofcom publishes telecoms market update: Britain's telecoms watchdog Ofcom published its quarterly Telecommunications Market Data Update for the fourth quarter of 2008, revealing that mobile carriers are seeing revenues slip slightly, even as call volumes and SMS inches up. According to the report, total revenue across the UK's four largest mobile operators?Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), O2, T-Mobile and Orange, fell by 2 percent in the fourth quarter, compared to the previous quarter, as voice revenues and other charges fell 3 percent, and messaging revenues declined 2 percent. Meanwhile, voice call traffic was up 2 percent quarter-on-quarter while SMS and MMS volumes grew 11 percent compared to the previous year. Complete report in PDF.

?Vodafone calling on UK developers: The deadline is looming quickly for Vodafone's Mobile Clicks Competition, open to developers in the UK and the Netherlands, to kick start the mobile internet sector in the two countries. Vodafone has had a number of submissions from the Netherlands, but not as many from British developers, whom it made a special appeal to today. The deadline for UK developers to submit an app is May 14 (the Dutch deadline has now passed), with the winner taking home 150,000 euros.