19 May, 2022

Europe’s Digital Decade plans, gigabit networks roll-out and the fair contribution debate

Brussels, 19 May 2022 –Europe has set very ambitious connectivity targets and aims at connecting all Europeans to 5G and fibre networks by 2030. In order to achieve such targets, the EU must accelerate the pace of roll-out and ensure that enough financial resources are available for to the telecom sector to do so.

In this context, the European Commission already has in place several funding and policy programmes to support connectivity. In addition, the Commission is now working on potential solutions that address the “fair and proportionate contribution” by tech companies to infrastructure. This was outlined in the declaration on “European Digital Rights and Principles” and in recent statements by EVP Vestager and Commissioner Breton. Solutions in this field should respect the EU Open Internet principles. However, critics point to the fact that previous Commissioners had dismissed such mechanism and invited telecom operators to change their business model instead.

These were the main highlights of ETNO’s event “Europe’s Internet Ecosystem: Is Everybody Contributing Their Fair Share?” (16.5.2022), moderated by MLex Editor-in-Chief Lewis Crofts. A full recording of the event is available here.

Below, you find the key highlights from the interventions by the speakers, including Rita Wezenbeek (European Commission), Konstantinos Masselos (BEREC), Christian Borggreen (CCIA Europe), Wolfgang Kopf (Deutsche Telekom AG), Dimitri Kallinis (Axon Consulting), and Lise Fuhr (ETNO).

They included extensive comments on the Axon Partners Report, which was presented by Alfons Oliver Altés, Partner, Axon Consulting.

 

© ETNO 2024
Comfortable read mode Normal mode X