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.
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The heads of major European telcos and vendors have said that they need greater leeway from regulators to make the roll-out of high speed broadband networks economically viable. Ben Verwaayen, chief executive of Alcatel-Lucent, Deutsche Telekom boss Rene Obermann and head of Vivendi Jean-Bernard Levy, told the European Commission that regulators should reduce rules that block industry mergers and network sharing initiatives that would help the operators build scale and lower costs.
Many Europeans are unhappy with the speed of their broadband connection, a Eurobarometer study has found. The research, commissioned by the European Union, revealed that a third of all subscribers have suffered from loss of service at some point, while a quarter of them feel that the speeds they receive do not match their expectations based on the deal they signed up for.
The European Commission this week designated two providers to offer satellite-based media and communications services, allocating Inmarsat and Solaris Mobile spectrum in the 2GHz S-band.