Copyright by asharkyu, 2012
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The Digital Agenda for Europe has set up ambitious targets to boost broadband penetration and speeds in Europe. By 2020 half of all European households should have broadband subscriptions at 100 Megabit/s or higher. However the latest measurements show that this is still far from being a reality since only 8.5% of all fixed lines deliver speeds of 30 Mbps and above and thus much efforts are needed to accomplished the target by 2020.
The economic benefits of broadband have been demonstrated in different studies and reports, which are mentioned in the Connecting Europe Facility proposal and in its impact assessment (referenced below under the legislation section): increasing broadband penetration by just 10 percentage points can boost GDP in the EU by 0.9 – 1.5%. Moreover next generation fibre networks are needed to support advance services and applications such as cloud computing, smart cities, or e-Health and the increasing data traffic demand in the fixed and mobile networks.
In order to improve the situation, the Comission among other things has proposed new funding instruments, such as the Connecting Europe facility (CEF) and a revision on how to use the existing EU’s regulatory framework best to achieve some of these broadband targets.
Overviews
EU broadband funds receive cautious welcome/ Euroactive, 2012:
A brief overview on the EC announcement to invest over 9 billion Euro in ultra-fast broadband through the Connecting Europe Facility new instrument
Digital Agenda Scoreboard 2011, progress on pillar 4 /EC, 2011, 54 Pages
A very relevant yearly report to look into the progress made in the different pillars of the Digital Agenda: pillar 4 focus is on deploying broadband Internet in Europe by 2020, including ultra fast broadband
Analysis
Guide to broadband investment, final report: / DG REGIO, EC, 2011, 119 pages
First guide produced by the european Commission to advise public authorities managing EU funds on the strenghts and weaknesses of different high speed broadband investment models and on challenges at the technological, regulatory and policy level for each of these models.
Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2011–2016,/ Cisco, 2012, 29 pages.
This study by ICT vendor Cisco has become a reference when it comes to forecasting Internet traffic increases in the EU and globaly; which are expected to increase dramaticaly for both fixed and mobile networks. Thus justifying the need to invest in high speed broadband to cope with this demand. Cisco was present as a speaker in a recent workshop on the topic organised by the ITRE committe. The presentation is available on this link.
Study on the implementation of existing broadband guidelines/ WIK consulting, 2011, 231 Pages
This is a relevant study which contributed to the Broadband guidelines developed by the EC. WIK was present as a speaker in a recent workshop on the topic organised by the ITRE committe. The presentation is available on this link
Next Generation Networks, / a study from the EP policy department A for the ITRE Committe, 2009, 70 Pages
This report summarised relevant policy and regulatory matters at EU level that are raised by the evolution of fixed and mobile networks into Next Generation Networks (NGN)
BEREC report on Co-investment and SMP in NGA networks/BEREC , 2012, 60 Pages.
This report provides advice with specific sets of conditions and criteria considered to be suitable indicators of effective competititon to national regulatory authorities facing NGA co-investment agreements in their national markets.
Digital Agenda Asembly 2012 workshop on high speed broadband, / organised by the EC on June 2012.
This dedicated one day workshop explored many aspects on the challenges to reach the digital agenda targets on high speed broadband, with a focus on reducing digging costs. All the presenation and the streaming of the event is available on the link.
‘Building the European Digital Infrastructure’, EP workshop, 2012
This workshop organised in June 2012 by the ITRE committe in Brussels included analysis coming from many relevant speakers and perspectives on the issue, which are available in the link.
Stakeholder views
EU Institutions’ views
European Broadband Communication:European Broadband: investing in digitally driven growth COM/2010/0472 final/ EC, 2010
Main policy document explaining the Commission broadband strategy in the Digital Agenda.
Enhancing the broadband investment environment – / Vice President Kroes, July 2012
Recent policy statement by EC Vice President Kroes identifying thenext steps to come at the funding and regulatory level to enhance ultra fast broadband deployment in the EU
Other stakeholders’ views consultation:
Digital Agenda: public consultations on access to telecoms networks/ EC, 2011
These two consultations included many position papers from a wide range of stakeholders’ perpectives at EU, national and local levels
Statistics
Digital Agenda scoreboard 2012 (focus on broadband statistics)/ EC, 2012. Several documents.
A very relevant yearly scoreboard analysis on the progress made in the different pillars of the Digital Agenda: pillar 4 focus is on deploying broadband Internet in Europe by 2020, including ultra fast broadband. The statistics included come either from Eurostat, or from EC comissioned studies and other international sources.
OECD broadband statistics 2012
Legislation
Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the Connecting Europe Facility , COM(2011) 665
this is the main legislative proposal from the EC made in 2011 to boost ultra fast broadband investment in the EU thorugh the Connecting Europe Facility new instrument.
Impact Assessment -SEC/2011/1229
Commission staff working paper accompaining the proposal COM(2011) 665
Conecting Europe facility/EP file 2011/0302(COD)
The dossier including the EP draft report views on the CEF and Council summary ones and the main calendar and key documents
This Recommendation primarily covers remedies to be imposed upon operators designated with Significant Market Power (SMP) on the basis of a market analysis procedure
Directive 2009/140/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council/ Common regulatory framework for electronic communications ammending the previous telecom package directives
Discussion
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