Economy
Brussels sends reasoned opinion to Hungary over broadband costs
The European Commission has asked Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and the United Kingdom to implement measures of cost reduction in deploying high-speed electronic communications networks (Directive 2014/61/EU; see a related press release here).
These rules seek to increase the sharing and re-use of existing physical infrastructure across various sectors (energy, transport, etc.) and should cut by up to 30% the cost of rolling out high-speed internet.
In March 2016, the Commission sent a letter of formal notice to all Member States which had failed to transpose the measures into national legislation so far, and several of them then notified the Commission that they had fully implemented the Directive.
Cost reduction rules support the strategic connectivity objectives that the European Commission has recently proposed (see related press release here): by 2025, all main socio-economic drivers, such as schools, universities, research centres, transport hubs, all providers of public services such as hospitals and administrations, and enterprises relying on digital technologies, should have access to extremely high - gigabit - connectivity (allowing users to download/upload 1 gigabit of data per second); all European households, rural or urban, should have access to connectivity offering a download speed of at least 100 Mbps, which can be upgraded to Gbps, and all urban areas as well as major roads and railways should have uninterrupted 5G coverage, the fifth generation of wireless communication systems.
As an interim target, 5G should be commercially available in at least one major city in each EU Member State by 2020. Member States had until 1 January 2016 to transpose the Directive into national legislation.
The Commission is sending to the remaining 19 Member States a final warning today. These countries now have two months to notify the Commission of measures taken to bring national legislation into line with EU law; otherwise, the Commission may decide, in accordance with EU infringement rules, to refer them to the Court of Justice of the EU and to propose financial sanctions.
These rules seek to increase the sharing and re-use of existing physical infrastructure across various sectors (energy, transport, etc.) and should cut by up to 30% the cost of rolling out high-speed internet.
In March 2016, the Commission sent a letter of formal notice to all Member States which had failed to transpose the measures into national legislation so far, and several of them then notified the Commission that they had fully implemented the Directive.
Cost reduction rules support the strategic connectivity objectives that the European Commission has recently proposed (see related press release here): by 2025, all main socio-economic drivers, such as schools, universities, research centres, transport hubs, all providers of public services such as hospitals and administrations, and enterprises relying on digital technologies, should have access to extremely high - gigabit - connectivity (allowing users to download/upload 1 gigabit of data per second); all European households, rural or urban, should have access to connectivity offering a download speed of at least 100 Mbps, which can be upgraded to Gbps, and all urban areas as well as major roads and railways should have uninterrupted 5G coverage, the fifth generation of wireless communication systems.
As an interim target, 5G should be commercially available in at least one major city in each EU Member State by 2020. Member States had until 1 January 2016 to transpose the Directive into national legislation.
The Commission is sending to the remaining 19 Member States a final warning today. These countries now have two months to notify the Commission of measures taken to bring national legislation into line with EU law; otherwise, the Commission may decide, in accordance with EU infringement rules, to refer them to the Court of Justice of the EU and to propose financial sanctions.
