New EU-plans to promote broadband access
11 March, 2004
»
The European Telecom ministers have welcomed new action plans from the Commission to promote broadband access in Europe. The Commission calls on Member States who have not yet put in place a national broadband strategy to do so without delay, with a focus on delivering broadband in under-served areas via a variety of platforms. This summer the Commission is due to report about the progress on the different broadband strategies to both Council and Parliament.
The European Commission sees information and communication technologies as key factor for economical growth and improvement of productivity in Europe. On 3 February 2004, the Commission adopted the Communication "Connecting Europe at high speed: Recent developments in the sector of electronic communications". This report sums up a number of actions still needed to address barriers to further investment:
-Member states must implement the new regulatory framework for electronic communications (a package of 4 directives) as soon as possible. The Commission is pursuing the necessary steps to ensure rapid transposition, which could if necessary lead to states being brought before the European Court of Justice.
-Member states must bring back the amount of regulation that frustrates competition, especially when it is protecting former monopolists.
The Commission also calls on member states to encourage the broader take-up and use of new services and technologies, particularly by the public sector, in order to stimulate demand and investment.
Finally, the Commission will set up a forum to discuss the problem of the digital divide, and create 'a new high level group' to work on Digital Rights Management as a way to promote innovative new services.
RAPID report about the Telecom Council (08.03.2004) http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&am...
Communication European Commission 'Connecting Europe at high speed: recent developments in the sector of electronic communications' (03.02.2004) http://europa.eu.int/information_society/eeurope/2005/doc/highlights/w...
