The electronic communications sector is an engine of innovation and progress, where regulation needs to meet its objectives and adapt to market trends, according to the European Commission’s insights from a summary of more than 400 opinions received during the consultation.
Innovation and efficient investment
Progress depends on innovation and effective investment. This requires the legal preconditions for the development of next-generation networks to be in place and for old technologies to give way to new ones. The European Union is currently discussing a legal mechanism, the Gigabit Infrastructure Act, which is expected to make administrative procedures for deploying next-generation networks simpler and shorter.
“The burden of promoting investment must not rest solely on the market, and Member States themselves have an important role to play. In Lithuania, the National Progress Plan foresees the allocation of more than €700 million for digital transformation, including more than €660 million for the Digital Decade, but the main challenge for Lithuania will be to ensure the efficiency of the investments,” says Indrė Jurgelionienė, Chief Advisor at CRA. – It is therefore important not only to promote the smooth development of infrastructure, but also to ensure that the electronic communications services provided by this infrastructure are actually used.”
For example, one of the EU’s Digital Decade goals is to ensure that “all end-users in a fixed location are within gigabit network coverage up to the network’s termination point, and that next-generation high-speed wireless networks, at least 5G, are in place in populated areas”.
A study commissioned by the Ministry of Economy and Innovation, entitled “Guidelines for Lithuania’s Digital Decade Plan”, stresses that Lithuania should achieve this goal, but that the national strategy needs to ensure that the benefits accrue to the end-users, who are spread quite unevenly across Lithuania.
“Given that 32% of Lithuania’s population lives in rural areas and this percentage is steadily declining, the implementation of the target needs to be coordinated not only with the Digital Decade goals, but also with initiatives to reduce exclusion – regional projects, etc.”, – says I. Jurgelionienė.
Obstacles to progress and investment
The fragmented electronic communications sector, often dependent on the national circumstances of EU Member States, hinders investment and sufficient progress. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s report “Future Communications Regulators”, regulation needs to evolve in line with technological advances, prioritising regulation based on principles rather than specific requirements, and promoting a holistic approach.
“Unfortunately, the fact that the transposition of EU directives into national law leads to diverging requirements in different Member States can be a major obstacle to the creation of a coherent EU internal market. When market players operate in several EU countries, regulatory differences become a real challenge”, believes the expert of CRA. According to I. Jurgelionienė, cross-border cooperation becomes particularly important when deciding on principles-based regulation, in order to ensure consistent regulation of the sector, while avoiding over-regulation.
Another idea put forward by the European Commission is the possibility of setting up a European Investment Fund. It aims to reduce disparities in infrastructure development between EU countries and ensure the efficiency of investment in electronic communications networks.
“However, the implementation of a measure of this nature needs to be approached with caution and, echoing the position expressed by the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC), the objectives of such a measure need to be clearly defined, the methodology needs to be clear, and the entities contributing to the fund and the beneficiaries identified. This is particularly important when considering the different sizes, populations, densities, financial capacities, as well as the impact on consumers and the competitive environment of the EU Member States”, says I. Jurgelionienė.
Security issues
Another important aspect is that security and network resilience is not just a national issue for EU Member States.
“Greater coordination at EU level is needed to guard against unwanted negative externalities. Recently, security issues have been put on the EU and national agendas. The development of the electronic communications infrastructure requires consideration of how to protect against factors that increase the risk of vulnerability to the confidentiality and integrity of networks, information transmitted over networks”, explains the expert of CRA.
In Lithuania, she said, this aspect was particularly relevant in the CRA’s auctions of radio frequencies for 5G technology. Additional provisions have been included in the auction conditions to ensure that the equipment to be used in the networks complies with national security requirements.
“But the EU is not only about national security, it is also about European security, especially when deploying next-generation networks. Such an approach is extremely important for small countries, as well as for border countries, for which a common EU position would ensure a high level of network resilience, mitigate the impact of unfriendly countries, and contribute to reducing exclusion,” emphasises I. Jurgelionienė, Chief Adviser at the CRA.
Updated on 2024-03-15