Providing super-fast broadband to the whole of the European Union could be much less expensive than previously thought, according to UK research firm Point Topic, which estimates that the whole economic area could be served for €80bn – less than a third of the €270bn estimated by the European Commission in its Digital Agenda.
After a tense few days of wrangling over budget cuts by Europe’s political leaders, it was scarcely good news for the €9.2bn pot of funding for broadband networks championed by Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for Digital Agenda.
Cutting funding to broadband infrastructure will harm Europe’s economic competitiveness, industry lobby group ETNO has warned. In a letter to European Union leaders, Europe’s Telecommunications Network Operators Association (ETNO), which consist of major European operators such as Deutsche Telekom and Telecom Italia, warned against cuts to the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).
Rural areas in the UK will soon receive a ‘superfast’ broadband boost after the UK government received approval to pump £530m into its Broadband Development UK (BDUK) upgrade scheme.
An extensive new report from the European Commission has found that EU citizens, businesses and innovators are generating enough demand for digital products and services, but are being let down by insufficient investment in information and communication technologies (ICT).
Vodafone has launched a new roaming package for subscribers, ahead of the EU’s new legislation aimed at lowering roaming costs, which comes into force July 1. Vodafone’s UK pay-monthly customers, including business travellers on standard price plans, are now able to use their existing UK price plan for voice, text and mobile internet in Europe for £3 per day.
Neelie Kroes is the vice president of the European Commission for the Digital Agenda and is delivering the opening keynote speech of the Broadband World Forum 2012, taking place on the 16 – 18 October 2012 at the RAI Exhibition and Convention Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. We take a look at the nature of her role and the industry topics with which she is closely associated.
Telefónica has announced a new pan-European data roaming tariff for customers, which it claims is up to ten times cheaper than the new price caps approved by the European Parliament this week.
Customers on the Movistar and O2 networks will be able to use up to 25MB of data whilst abroad, anywhere across the 27 European Union member states, for just €2 per day.
Members of the European Parliament and representatives of the Council and the European Commission have voted in favour of new rules that will lower roaming rates in the EU and see the creation of an EU-wide roaming market.
The European Commission has sent Slovak Telekom an anti-trust complaint over allegations that it has abused its market position. The EU regulator accused the local incumbent in Slovakia of stymieing competition by failing to open up its network to rivals and charging “unfair wholesale prices”.
Legislation being passed through European Court could radically change the EU roaming market and see operators competing for the business of travellers and the creation of an EU-wide “roaming marketplace”.
International carrier Orange/France Telecom has committed itself to rolling out LTE networks across ten European countries by 2015. France Telecom’s CEO Stéphane Richard made the announcement at a meeting with the European Commission in Brussels this week.
The European Parliament and the EU’s Council of Ministers is considering a proposal from the European Commission for an ambitious project, worth up to €100bn ($140bn), to fund the rollout of fibre broadband and associated services across the EU.
EU Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes has announced a public consultation looking for ways to make copper-based telecommunications networks less attractive to operators in a bid to spur investment in fiber.
Wednesday’s European Commission announcement on proposed changes to mobile roaming tariffs will effectively end the EU mobile roaming market as it stands today. According to Informa senior analyst Paul Lambert, the Commission’s proposed requirement that operators open their networks to other providers has “consigned to history the bi-lateral approach to striking roaming wholesale agreements which has been in place since the advent of GSM.”
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