Texit™

Sadly there’s really only one topic of news at the moment and it’s not football.

Personally I’m in mourning and worried for many aspects of the UK’s future, but what does Brexit mean for Texit© – the telecoms industry’s own exit?

“Dunno” is the only possible answer.

Sure, everyone and his dog has an opinion but they have no more idea than my goldfish. And I don’t have a goldfish.

Since the result, I’ve been receiving ‘don’t panic’ emails from our various professional advisors. Some of the things I’m not supposed to panic about, I wasn’t even aware that I might be able to panic about.

For example the ‘Voipfone’ brand image is trademarked, so our intellectual property lawyers sent out a ‘don’t panic’ email about the European standing of trademarks. It turns out that the European Patent Office (EPO) is not a European Union institution; it’s subject to a separate treaty.

Those of us just trying to get on with connecting telephone calls tend to use the term ‘EU’ to mean anything and everything to do with dealing with Europe. So it’s going to take everyone a while to unpick those things that ARE about the EU and those that are not.

One possible thing to panic about is Europe’s action to remove roaming charges across member states, an action which has the affect of plummeting call bills.

The EU’s action on net neutrality was another ‘good thing’ for VoIP and the internet generally.

But there will be many others – a couple of which will be having only Ofcom and UK politicians to worry about. Is that supposed to be a good thing?

“Dunno”, but it seems very unlikely.