EU broadband law: Agreement reached on intra-EU call abolition in 2029, voluntary tacit approval

Representatives of the EU Council, Commission, and Parliament agreed on a compromise text of the Gigabit Infrastructure Act: the tacit approval remains a voluntary principle while the abolition of intra-EU communication ‘surcharges’ is set for 2029-2032. 

The Gigabit Infrastructure Act is a legislative proposal to ease and accelerate the deployment of high-capacity networks.

The political agreement reached on Tuesday (6 February) will need further technical meetings so that a comprehensive final text is put on paper, which will then need to be approved by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU.

“The new provisions ensure that calls and SMS within the EU will be at the same price as the domestic calls from 2029,” European Parliament’s rapporteur Alin Mituța wrote on X at the end of the inter-institutional negotiation.

Abolition of intra-EU communication surcharges

Dita Charanzová, the Czech vice-president of the European Parliament, set the tone on Monday morning, writing on X in a message aimed at Council negotiators that there would be “no Gigabit Infrastructure Act without rules on intra-EU calls and SMS!”

Although EU consumers ‘roam like home’ when travelling inside the EU, paying no extra fee using their smartphones, they still pay charges when they call (€0.19/min) or send a text (€0.06/min) from their home country to another EU member state.

Abolishing these fees has been a political priority for the European Parliament for years, but failed multiple times because of Council opposition.

Under the deal, intra-EU communications price cap will be prolonged from 14 May 2024 to 1 January 2032.

By 30 June 2027, the Commission will have to deliver an impact assessment on the phase-out of the retail price cap. The EU executive should take into account the wholesale market, impact on consumer prices, and evolution of consumer preferences as part of its analysis.

By 1 January 2029, following an implementing act by the European Commission taken no later than 30 June 2028, intra-EU communication fees will be abolished in the sense that retail prices will be equal to national domestic prices.

The implementing act will include safeguards preventing abuses, following the example of the EU roaming regulation. They will encompass sustainability rules, fair use, and anti-fraud measures.

By 2032, EU co-legislators will decide whether to renew the intra-EU communication fees abolition.

Still, as soon as 2025, and in order to push the market to start applying these rules, telecom operators will be allowed to reduce their retail prices to their national domestic prices, hence fostering price competition on intra-EU communications.

EU policymakers clinch toward agreement on broadband law

Ahead of the third political inter-institutional negotiation on 5 February on an EU regulation to speed up 5G and fiber roll out, co-legislators are dedicated to find compromises on the most political topics: the tacit approval principle and intra-EU communication fees.

Tacit approval

In exchange for this gradual fee abolition, the European Parliament has watered down its willingness to push for a mandatory principle of ‘tacit approval’ when granting permits to telecom operators.

Suggested by the European Commission as the silver bullet to accelerate very-high capacity network deployment within the EU, the ‘tacit approval’ principle means that in the case of an administrative authority not responding to a request for permit granting within a set deadline, the absence of answer is treated as an implicit authorisation.

Several EU countries opposed the provision as they considered it as either an anti-constitutional set-up against the autonomy of their competent administrative authority or as non-aligned with their administrative practices.

EU negotiators agreed on the European Commission’s conciliation proposal.

EU countries will be able to derogate from the tacit approval principle and either compel their permit-granting authorities to compensate applicants if they fail to reply in due time or give applicants the right to file a complaint in court.

In case member states choose to derogate from the tacit approval principle, conciliation hearings are foreseen. Applicants and administrative authorities will be empowered to trigger the mechanism in case of disagreements.

The agreed deadline for a permit granting being considered late has been set to four months, coming back to the European Commission’s original proposal.

When it comes to deadline extensions, the Parliament managed to impose a restrictive renewal of four months, if the administrative authority is not responsible for delay. That would be the case when another administrative authority is responsible for the delayed process, or in case of force majeure.

EU countries to stand their ground in broadband law negotiations

The EU Council of Ministers is considering a timid compromise on the tacit approval principle in the EU broadband law and remains dubious about ending intra-EU call surcharges, according to an internal document seen by Euractiv.

Entry into force

The Gigabit Infrastructure Act will enter into force 18 months after it is published in the Official Journal.

Some articles related to the digitalisation of the single digital entry points, the IT platforms that should publicly inform telecom operators of the existing national telecom infrastructures, will kick in after 24 months.

Scope

The scope of the regulation has been extended, including tower companies without differentiation based on a wholesale-only definition, as the European Parliament first suggested.

Land aggregators have been regulated as well, in a manner that does not include the mention of “fair and reasonable” terms and conditions when negotiating with telecom operators but a negotiation that should happen “in good faith”.

Land aggregators will also have to inform regulatory authority when concluding agreements with landowners, in a bid from EU co-legislators to gather data and reflect on a more informed regulation.

Covering all EU citizens with very-high-capacity internet

The Gigabit Infrastructure Act’s original aim is to accelerate fibre and 5G roll-out, in order to reach 100% coverage of very-high-capacity internet for all EU citizens by 2030.

Therefore, the Commission will have to present a report to the co-legislators on the Gigabit Infrastructure Act implementation, with a focus on rural areas, while including an analysis of satellite backhauling and the use of the EU’s satellite internet constellation, the Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite  (IRIS2).

“7% of EU citizens are still not online,” Isabelle Mauro, director general at the Global Satellite Operators Association, told the European 5G conference last week.

“Should the EU want to ensure it achieves its connectivity goals, it should remember that there is more than one approach and more than one technology to bring connectivity,” Mauro said.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]

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