The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise’s input to the White paper includes comments on
- the trends and challenges within the digital infrastructure sector,
- the market description in the White Paper and
- what it falls short in.
Based on the White Paper, Swedish Enterprise proposes the following;
The goals of the Digital Decade Policy Programme should be revised and made more ambitious going forward and with greater focus on application rather than simply access. The needs of business and industry need to be considered more. Goals and indexes are needed for technology shifts and liberalisation, as well as a greater focus on new technology in follow-up. Goals should not reward the continued use of copper and coax.
To compete globally, the EU needs to support frontrunner member countries and regions. The ongoing paradigm shift offers an opportunity to regain lost leadership, but this will require a more differentiated approach based on better regulation and less protectionism. Current regulations and support have too much focus on markets in the EU that are lagging behind and thus have a levelling effect that inhibits rather than supports frontrunners. This needs to be addressed.
It is important that the market can develop and consolidate, but the White Paper has too one-sided a focus on the consolidation of vertically integrated operators. It is the degree of liberalisation that determines the extent to which operators in the EU will be able to benefit from the opportunities offered by new technologies, which in turn will create the economies of scale that attract investors. National barriers need to be removed, not added to.
Attacks on and risks to digital infrastructures have increased significantly. Companies generally need to do more to improve their own protection against security incidents. At the same time, the EU must produce a harmonised plan around levels of protection for public digital networks. Operators must be compensated for the additional costs of securing and protecting electronic communications networks that are neither reasonable nor proportionate to impose on commercial telecom operators.
The EU should focus more on the importance of all member states being quick to implement new technology for digital infrastructure and making it available for the development of new services. For maximum effect, it is also important to stimulate the phasing out of legacy technologies. Developing new technology while retaining the old is costly and reduces the positive societal effects that derive from using new technologies.
Incentives are needed to encourage faster technology shifts and innovation that improve competition in the telecommunications market, not an increased regulatory burden. We call on the European Commission to continue using its statutory veto power and stop all national attempts at fibre market regulation and urgently abolish sector-specific (ex-ante) legislation.