Broadband action at EU and MS level
35th Meeting of the Committee on Rural Development strategies
24 JUNE 2009, 09.30 –18h30, Brussels, CCAB Room 2D
Ken Ducatel
Head of Unit, DG Information Society and Media
Unit C1: Liston Strategy and i2010
23 June 2009
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Slide: 1
Forthcoming EU Broadband strategy
Main themes
•
Trigger investment in new high-speed fibre networks Need
to ensure a high speed, good quality broadband infrastructure
with good download, upload speeds, latency and excellent
accessibility to services and content.
•
Complete transparency and openness of internet services to
engender trust and empower users and consumers;
•
Seamless convergence between fixed and wireless to pave
the ay to "nomadic" ways of life and work: interoperability
between infrastructures, and operators' business models, etc.
•
Make broadband services available to 100% of Europeans.
Involvement of regional and local and rural development
authorities in the roll-out of infrastructure to empower. Reduce
gap between availability and demand.
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EU Broadband Penetration Rate
January 2009
EU penetration average: 22.9%
EU Broadband penetration rate - BB lines per 100 population (January 2009)
FR
UK
LU
31.3%
BE
28.8%
27.7%
DE
28.4%
27.5%
AT
24.6%
SI
23.9%
IE
22.9%
ES
21.4%
LT
21.0%
LV
20.2%
CZ
19.0%
PT
18.2%
HU
17.5%
EL
17.4%
PL
17.1%
RO
16.5%
BG
13.4%
11.7%
SK
13.2%
11.2%
10%
10.9%
15%
16.3%
20%
20.2%
25%
27.5%
30%
30.7%
36.2%
35%
37.3%
40%
5%
0%
CY
IT
EU27
MT
EE
FI
SE
NL
DK
Data for NL as of October 2008
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Broadband Penetration
International Comparison (July 2008)
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Growth in Broadband Coverage 2005-2008
Growth in DSL rural coverage in the EU (in % of total population)
99%
100%
99%
99%
100% 100% 100%
94%
90%
90%
90%
91%
88%
87%
85%
82%
82%
90%
86%
83%
80%
80%
77%
75%
70%
70%
68%
60%
50%
50%
50%
43%
43%
40%
30%
25%
20%
10%
35%
25%
0%
66%
55%
57%
LT
IE
67%
76%
45%
27%
IT
SI
79%
79%
82%
78%
66%
55%
83%
88%
99%
95%
100% 100% 100%
0%
RO
PL
SK
BG
EL
LV
EU27
EE
AT
HU
2005
Source: IDATE
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CZ
IS
PT
ES
FI
SE
DE
NO
FR
NL
UK
BE
DK
LU
2008
Slide: 5
Example of National Broadband Strategies
Broad, comprehensive strategies
• France – PlanNumérique 2012
• Hungary – National broadband
strategy
• Malta – The smart island
• Portugal – Connecting Portugal
• Spain - Plan avanza 2
• UK - Digital Britain
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Example of National Broadband Strategies
Clear goals for broadband coverage
• Bulgaria
– 2013
• 100% 10Mbps in large towns
• 90% 6 Mbps in medium size towns
• 30% 1 Mbps in rural areas
• Slovenia
– 2010 access to all, ≥2 Mbps to 90%
– 2012 ≥ 2Mbps to 98%
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Example of National Broadband Strategies
Focus on universal service at affordable prices
• France - ≥512 Kbps at <€ 35 pr month
• Ireland – National Broadband Scheme at € 19,95
pr month;
• Finland
– 2010: At least 1 Mbps to all
– 2015: 100 Mbps to all (within 2 KM reach to optical
Fibre
• Germany
– at least 1 Mb/s till 2010;
– at least 50 Mb/s available to 75% of the German
households till 2014,
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Example of National Broadband Strategies
Fiber to the home (FTTx)
• Slovenia
– 2020 – FTTH to 90%
• Malta
– 2010 – FTTH to 100% homes
• Finland
– 2015 – FTTH ≤ 2 km to 99%
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Example of National Broadband Strategies
Focus on new services
• Denmark -
– Green ICT
• Estonia
– Focus on use, penetration, skills, knowledgebased economy, ICT sector
• Netherlands –
– Skills, service innovation, eGov services
• Norway
– eGov services, education, eHealth
• Poland
– Innovation, inclusive society, R&D, public
services, quality of life
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Key Example: Finland
•
Why 100 Mbps high speed broadband?
•
Business model
– Faster and more symmetrical connections are needed for Teleworking;
Development of social services; Remote health care; High definition
television; Download films; Competition in distribution of television
programmes
– High speed connection on market terms to 95%
– Coverage up to 99% by subsidized connections
•
•
•
•
•
•
120 000 households
Total cost € 200 million
Telecom operators will cover 1/3
Public aid 2/3
Part of public expenses from radio frequency auctions, state, municipalities,
EU
Responsibility
–
–
–
–
–
Regional councils
Finnish Telecom Reg. Authority
Ministry of transport and communications
Ministry of the environment
Telecom operators
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Key Example: Digital Britain
“Focus on communications infrastructure aspects”
•
The Universal Service Commitment (USC)
•
Funding Scheme:
– £200m from direct public funding from Digital Switchover Help
Scheme underspend
– Contributions in kind from private partners,
– Contributions from other public sector organisations in the
nations and regions who benefit from the increased
connectivity,
– Consumer directly for in-home upgrading;
– “... the Government will pursue Universal Service in broadband, at a
speed of 2 Megabits per second, by no later than 2012”
– Next Generation Fund: supplement of 50 pence per month on
all fixed copper lines to bring down investment in next generation
broadband to final 1/3 of UK homes.
– Value of wider coverage obligations on mobile operators
arising from the wider mobile spectrum package.
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Key Example: Hungary
•
•
•
•
•
Broadband coverage commitments
– 2009: 94% 2012: 100%
Broadband penetration
– 2009: 16,3%
Financing
– Structural funds, cohesion funds
– Using line-based infrastructures in permanent public ownership
Business Model
– “Provision of “digital public utility” creates infrastructure that
has open access, facilitates competition, reduces barriers to
market entry”
In the lead:
– Prime ministers office
– Indirect involvement of local municipalities
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Key Example:
US Broadband Strategy for rural America
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Grants and loans for 7.2 Billion dollars to expand broadband deployment
by Feb. 2011.
A comprehensive national plan is to be developed by Feb.2010
Criteria for investment: technology-neutrality, reliability, openness,
scalability; interoperability, durability, redundancy, and security; distance
and topography; maintenance and repair; and resource contention etc.”
Interactive and searchable comprehensive nationwide inventory
map of existing broadband service capability and availability”;
Synergy among infrastructures: gathering data on non-communications
infrastructure, such as water towers, railroads, and highways, that could
support broadband network facilities.
Coordination efforts among all levels of government including non-BB
programme to exploit opportunities to deliver BB in rural areas also through
other programmes
“Community Broadband Tool-Kit” that provides step-by-step guidance
on how a community can deploy broadband services
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Slide: 14
Public intervention:
pitfalls to avoid opportunities to exploit
•
•
•
•
•
•
Check the existence and the credibility of plans of investment
by all investors (telecoms, cable, utilities, etc.).
Assess demand (both infrastructure and services) with the
assistance of social and economic actors including business, ICT
operators, civil society etc.
Respect state aid (notify relevant projects to E.C.) and
procurement rules (open tenders).
Respect the principle of technological neutrality: focus on
objectives and requirements not technologies!
Balancing supply and demand actions; support not only
infrastructure and on-line services, also ICT skills, digital
literacy, PC ownership, eInclusion / eAccessibility measures
supporting certain social groups.
Increase regional and local capacity to plan and manage ICT:
exchange of good practices, peer review, increase expertise,
benchmarking, etc.
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Public intervention: typical pitfalls to
avoid opportunities to exploit
– Facilitating access to ducts: Decoupling of civil infrastructure costs
from other costs helps broadband deployment (civil engineering costs
represent 50-80% of total deployment costs)
– Coordinate civil works (eg: trench sharing between operators) and
encourage the sharing of ducts and other facilities to avoid inefficient
duplication of basic infrastructure;
– PA could lay ducts and then rent them to operators on an open and
non-discriminatory basis and impose open access obligations;
– Synergy among transport, energy, water and telecom
infrastructures: PA should systematically take into account ICT needs
and lay down passive infrastructure (eg: dark fibre).
– PA could mandate indoor pre-cabling for new house settlements and
or buildings.
– Demand aggregation policies can create a critical mass of users,
exploit economies of scale and facilitate commercial investment (eg: in
rural and sparsely populated areas).
– Management of the infrastructure: best left in the hands of an
independent entity which can then lease it to telecom operators
on open and non discriminatory bases.
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Slide: 16