Kommission: Fortschritt bei Breitbandverbreitung in der EU zu langsam[en][fr] 

The widespread introduction of broadband at affordable prices is one of the chief objectives of the EU's e-Europe 2005 action plan (see LinksDossier), which aims to bring every citizen, home, school, business and administration into the digital age and contribute to the Lisbon goal of becoming the world's most competitive, knowledge-based economy (see LinksDossier on the Lisbon Agenda). 

In 2007, the European Commission proposed achieving a 30% broadband penetration rate by 2010 (see EurActiv 12/12/07). 

But EU leaders did not endorse the bold goal. "Member states should aim to make high-speed internet available to all schools by 2010 and to set ambitious national targets for household access," they agreed  instead, at the March 2008 Spring Summit (see EurActiv 17/03/08).

Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding is convinced that more competition is crucial to increasing penetration levels. She sees the functional separation of networks from supply activities as an efficient solution do this. Her view is mirrored in the Telecoms sector review proposed by the Commission in November 2007 (see our Links Dossier).

The report  indicates that some Northern EU countries are world leaders in broadband deployment. Notably, Denmark and the Netherlands are at the top of the international league with penetration rates respectively over 34% and 33%.

Also Finland, Sweden, the UK and France, among others, are ahead of global actors such as US and Japan. However, the majority of EU states still lag behind, with high-speed network deployment below the EU average of 20%. Among the most developed European economies, Italy, Spain and Ireland record significant delays.

The Commission regularly publishes such progress reports, with its previous edition registering an average EU broadband penetration rate at 18.2%.

Altogether, the EU bloc continues to chase world leaderrs like Switzerland, South Korea, Norway, Iceland, Canada, Australia, US and Japan. 

Information Society Commissioner Reding’s recipe to close the gap is to lower national incumbent operators' share of the market. 

"Incumbent operators hold more than 46% of broadband lines," reads the press release issued by the Commission. "Competition is limited for access to the fixed network which is still provided to 86.5% of customers over the incumbent’s infrastructure," underlined Commissioner Reding.

However, the incumbents, such as France Telecom, Telefonica or Telecom Italia, view the glass from the other perspective and highlight that "alternative operators hold more of 50% of the market shares", according to a position paper of ETNO, the European incumbents’ association.

While both are right, the proposed solutions are conflicting. Reding wants functional separation, which if applied by national regulators would oblige telecoms giants to split the management of their networks and services activities.

Conversely, incumbents insist on the necessity of new investments to allow Europe to catch up with its world competitors. They argue that only big companies have the strength to support heavy structural innovations, but that they will not do this if they are made smaller by new regulations.

"The European regulatory model is designed to increase competition in the telecoms market and this certainly is starting to pay off," said Viviane Reding, the EU’s Telecoms Commissioner. "However, the job is not yet done. Competition is limited for access to the fixed network," she added .

In visit to the US, where he noticed a much stronger development of fibre-based broadband networks in comparison with EU, ETNO Director Michael Bartholomew said : "As the European Parliament and the member states currently debate the future EU telecoms rules, it is key to identify the most appropriate conditions to encourage all players to invest and to meet the challenges the sector is facing."

Innocenzo Genna, Chairman of ECTA, the association of European alternative operators, is strongly in favour of Reding’s positions. Speaking about the proposed Telecoms review, he said: "The Commission’s decision regarding functional separation is a particularly critical one." 

"Seventeen countries in Europe are lagging in broadband provision because they have little or no unbundling of the incumbent network. Europe could today have been a worldwide broadband leader if regulators had had the opportunity to use functional separation to support open markets," he added.