Developing Broadband in the European Union: Digital Agenda Sand Other Endeavours of the Commission
Developing Broadband in the European Union: Digital Agenda Sand Other Endeavours of the Commission

Summary/Abstract: Global ICT competition has, in the last decade, entered a new phase. Whilst in the 1990s the European Union was a pioneer in some areas of the sector, this advantage has since disappeared. By creating the conditions for competition, the EU was able to achieve a leading position, and the sectorspecific electronic communications regulations, built on liberalisation and harmonisation as proposed by the European Commission, have been a great success over the last two decades and have undoubtedly become a benchmark fostering the common goals of the European Union. Global challenges, however, have significantly changed, and the erstwhile leading position has now disappeared. The European Union lost its ability to initiate market and user trends, so achieving a high level of world leadership and likewise decreasing economic power. This negative trend is also recognised by recent European Union strategies and by the European Commission advocating that one of the most important factors of the desired change is the accessibility of superfast broadband networks for more and more Europeans. Accordingly, the Digital Agenda for Europe proposes that every European should have basic broadband by 2013 and broadband with 30Mbps or higher speeds by 2020. In order to achieve these goals, the European Commission initiated a Broadband Package consisting of three reinforcing measures aiming to encourage investment both into fixed and mobile broadband networks. In the light of the above, the paper analyses the policy tools of the European Commission in encouraging investment into broadband networks. First, the strategic vision and goals behind broadband development are assessed, following which the paper looks into the concrete action plans and measures of the Broadband Package of the European Commission and their expected effects. Finally, in the conclusion attempts are made to evaluate the measures and explore the benefits which they may bring to European operators and users.

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