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• Telecom Industry Applauds EU Institutions for New Platform Rulebooks

  The European telecommunications industry welcomes the European Parliament’s adoption of the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA), resulting from the co-legislators’ provisional agreements earlier this year. Today’s vote confirms Europe’s political commitment and vision to shape the societal and economic dynamics of digital platform ecosystems in line with its value system.

  The GSMA and ETNO congratulate the EU Institutions for making the DSA’s guiding mantra – that what is illegal offline should be illegal online – a reality in Europe. We particularly applaud their efforts to strike the balance between preventing the spread of illegal material online and the respect of fundamental rights, by recognising that intermediaries should bear responsibilities proportionate to their role in disseminating such material. We are confident that the provisions enshrined in the DSA, including the measures aiming at tackling disinformation, will help in fighting the erosion of trust that EU citizens and our societies are experiencing.

  The telecom industry has long advocated for the need to ensure fairness and contestability in digital markets. This objective is fully reflected in the final text of the DMA, which empowers the Commission with the ability to designate firms as digital gatekeepers, subject to upfront prohibitions and obligations to remedy such unfair behaviours. Once in force, the DMA will create new opportunities for market entrants to compete on an equal footing, with benefits for innovation and consumer choice.

  These two pieces of legislation together mark a significant step forward to restoring a level-playing in the internet value chain, and we encourage the EU Institutions to keep pursuing this goal for the remainder of the present mandate. We look forward to the upcoming initiatives aimed at ensuring that all relevant market actors make a fair and proportionate contribution to the costs digital infrastructure, true to the European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade.

  The GSMA and ETNO will rely on the European Commission and national authorities to guarantee the effective enforcement of the DSA and the DMA, and will remain vigilant to ensure their implementation lives up to their promises.

  05 July, 2022 Read more

• 8 common questions on the “fair contribution” debate

  By Maarit Palovirta, Senior Director Regulatory Affairs, ETNO

  Since the publication of the EU Digital Decade principles in January, a lively debate has been developing on whether tech giants are contributing enough to the network costs they generate. This is very relevant to the achievement of the EU Digital Decade targets, which foresee full 5G and gigabit coverage by 2030.

  In this context, policymakers and stakeholders have spoken up in the media, public debates and ETNO has published a report by Axon Partners on the EU Internet Ecosystem. As the debate continues, I would like to address what we see at the top eight questions being raised in the exchanges with stakeholders. This is our contribution, from a telecoms standpoint, to clarify what the “fair contribution” concept is and is not about.

  08 June, 2022 Read more

• Surge in inflation requires adjustments in WACC estimates for telco regulation

  The weighted average cost of capital (WACC) is a key parameter in regulatory cost control procedures and thus for setting prices for legacy services (copper). With surging inflation operators will be faced with increasing interest rates leading to increased cost of capital. However, due to backward looking provisions of the European Commission “WACC-Notice” of 2019, National Regulatory Authorities (NRA) would be forced to decrease their regulatory WACC. We would like to stress that this paper only concerns WACC, but in addition, inflation has an impact on other underlying wholesale costs which are not captured by WACC (e.g. OPEX related costs).

  30 May, 2022 Read more