īEC Directive Aims To Boost Fast Broadband

The European Commission (EC) has put into effect a binding EU Directive specifying measures to spur the roll-out of high-speed broadband by reducing costs.

The directive, published last week in the EU’s Official Journal, was first proposed two years ago, and was finalised in February. Member states now have until 1 January, 2016 to transpose it into national legislation.

Infrastructure sharing

It targets four areas: improvement of sharing existing infrastructure, such as ducts, poles and masts, with energy, transport and other utilities; better coordination of civil works; faster granting of permits; and equipping new buildings and major renovations with high-speed infrastructure and open network access.

The EC said the new rules could lead to a 20 to 30 percent increase in the deployment of high-speed broadband and cut deployment costs for service providers by 40 billion to 60bn euros (£32bn to £49bn).

“The development of high-speed networks today is having the same revolutionary impact as the development of electricity and transportation networks had a century ago,” said Wolf-Dietrich Grussman, vice head of the EC’s Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT), in a statement. “I am confident that this piece of legislation will contribute that every euro invested in network deployment has maximum impact.”

The EC said it w ill hold a workshop on 26 June on how telecommunications companies and energy firms can work with the new regulations.

Duct access row

In the UK, Ofcom ordered BT in 2010 to provide better access to its cabling infrastructure to rivals in order to hasten the spread of high-speed Internet services, as part of the BDUK project. In response, BT unveiled its pricing for infrastructure access in January 2011.

The issue has remained controversial in Britain, however, with a group of ISPs threatening in April of 2011 to boycott the government’s BDUK programme over what they called BT’s excessive charges for infrastructure access.

BT said in a statement it “welcomed” the new directive.

Do you know all about 4G and the mobile future? Take our quiz.