Europe’s Way to the High Speed Internet: Why Effective Network Competition is the Freeway to the Future

Viviane Reding - Member of the European Commission responsible for Information Society and Media - speaking at the ECTA Annual Conference, Brussels, 25 June 2008.

Main Messages of Commissioner Reding’s speech:

• The technological and economic developments paving the way for high-speed broadband networks have the potential to increase competition to the benefit of consumers. But they can also lead to new bottlenecks and re-monopolisation of end user markets.
• A key element in my vision for Next Generation Access regulation is to ensure that all parties, entrants or incumbents have sufficient incentives to move in these markets.
• Regulatory restraint as a carte blanche for incumbents to re-monopolise markets where the buds of competition are flourishing is not a policy option if we want competitive markets.
• It is very important that the conditions to invest exist and regulatory certainty is one of those conditions. Today, the regulatory landscape in Europe is unfortunately heavily fragmented in this respect.
• Regulatory guidance by the Commission is therefore required and appropriate in order to foster investments and maintain competition between infrastructure networks and service providers in the broadband area.
• In the forthcoming Commission Recommendation on Next Generation Access, the Commission intends to ensure consistency of regulatory approaches by establishing three principles of NGA regulation for the next 5 years:

1. First of all, access regulation which has been imposed in the past on dominant network operators will be continued, extended and if necessary reinforced also in case of a switch by the dominant player to a next generation network. Technological change should not, in itself, lead to a change of the regulatory rules in place.
2. Secondly, we want to encourage investment into next generation access networks by a stable and predictable regulatory environment. We are stilI discussing the final details of this in the Commission, but I believe that the best way for encouraging long-term investment is to establish a priori a number of principles that national regulators should take into account when regulating access prices with regard to next generation access networks. In my personal view, these should include a risk premium of around 15 %.
3. Thirdly, we must manage the transition from the system of measures applicable to SMP operators [= operators with significant market power] to tomorrow’s next generation access measures. We have to recognise that the “ladder of investment” that has brought us to unbundled local loops will in the future have to adapt to the different end-to-end network architecture. Alternative operators will increasingly be given an incentive to roll out their own infrastructure closer to the customer. Or, where this is not feasible, will have to go back to bitstream remedies. In order to manage this transition in a predictable fashion for both SMP operators and alternative network operators, regulators must impose transparency obligations on SMP operators so that they cannot use these ‘informational asymmetries’ to thwart or delay alternative infrastructure investments or to destroy the competitive potential of alternative players.

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Full speech:

Models for efficient and effective public sector interventions in next-generation broadband access networks

The Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG) – the government’s advisory group on broadband has published a report identifying potential models for efficient and effective public sector intervention in the deployment and take-up of next generation broadband in the UK. It makes several recommendations for public sector bodies that might be considering such projects.

Official Site:
http://www.broadbanduk.org/component/option,com_docman/task,doc_view/gid,1008/Itemid,63/

[Local copy]

A Framework for Evaluating the Value of Next Generation Broadband, 2008

The UK could reap significant social and economic value from the wide-spread deployment of next generation broadband, according to a new report that studies how to weigh up the costs and benefits, from the Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG), the government’s leading advisory group on broadband and digital convergence.

By looking at the potential private value (value accruing to commercial investors and consumers) and the wider economic and social value, the BSG has found that the long-term benefits to the UK associated with the wide-scale deployment could outweigh the cost of deployment, which could be as much as £16bn (to reach 80 per cent of UK homes).

Official site:
http://www.broadbanduk.org/component/option,com_docman/task,doc_view/gid,1009/Itemid,63/

[Local copy]

Economic benefits of digital inclusion - building the evidence, 2008

This research summary by UK Online Centres begins to break down the specific benefits and associated savings digital inclusion could provide for five core groups - individual people, private sector organisations, the government, society and the wider economy.

http://www.ukonlinecentres.com/corporate/images/stories/downloads/economic%20benefits%20of%20digital%20inclusion%20-%20building%20the%20evidence.pdf

The Digital Inclusion Landscape in England, 2007

Produced by the Government’s Digital Inclusion Team, subtitled “Delivering Social Impact through Information and Communications Technology”

http://digitalinclusion.pbwiki.com/f/The+Digital+Inclusion+Landscape+In+England.pdf

Local e-Government and Social Inclusion: Moving from a digital divide to social inclusion in 2003 and 2004

This study reports on best practice among local authorities in England in 2003 and 2004. It draws primarily on the experience of Beacon Councils under round four of the programme of ’social inclusion through ICT’. Although the local e-government programme closed in April 2006, councils have a vital role tacking forward the transformational agenda. The report emphasises their on-going role as strategic enablers in bringing together public, private and voluntary sector agencies in tackling the digital divide.

Communities and Local Government
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/egovernmentsocialinclusion

EverybodyOnline Annual Overview 2006-2007

The EverybodyOnline Project helps communities and individuals in disadvantaged areas across the UK to engage with digital technology. They aim to help communities overcome any barriers they may have to computers and the Internet so they can take advantage of the wealth of opportunities digital technology and the Internet has to offer.

EverybodyOnline Annual Overview 2006-2007 [PDF]
http://www.citizensonline.org.uk/site/media/documents/1732_Annual_report_06_07.pdf

ICT and home school links - does it work?, 2008

Presentation by Vanessa Pittard and Moritz Bilagher at BETT 2008

Drawing on Becta’s evaluations of the Wolverhampton and Bristol PDA projects and the Computers for Pupils programme, this presentation considers how well universal and personal access to ICT has positive benefits for learning.

Becta [PowerPoint]
http://events.becta.org.uk/download.cfm?resID=35098&download_url=/content_files/corporate/resources/events/2008/january/bett08_home_school_links.ppt

The Power of Information, 2007

This review explores new developments in the use and communication of citizen and state–generated public information in the UK. It talks about a new era, where government starts to learn how to support citizens’ own ways of making, finding and re-using information online.

The analysis and and recommendations have been used to inform Cabinet Office Ministers.

http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/upload/assets/www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/strategy/power_information.pdf

Transformational Government for the Citizen, 2006

This research report by UK Online Centres looks at the results of the South West e-government pilot, which took place over nine months in 2006. It looks at the results of supporting people to use e-government services in UK online centres, re-maps the ‘digital divide’ and analyses the links between digital and social exclusion.

UK Online Centres [PDF]
http://www.ukonlinecentres.com/corporate/images/stories/downloads/ukonlineegovresearchreport.pdf