Deploying very high capacity networks: competition rules and cooperation in the telecom sector

This live webinar will present and debate the results of a new CERRE Telecom report ‘Cooperation between firms to deploy very high capacity networks’. Determining what might drive investments in fixed and mobile networks in Europe has not always been obvious and defining policy levers to encourage investments has proven more elusive than was anticipated.

In this report, authors Tony Shortall, Prof. Marc Bourreau and Winston Maxwell focus on the need for cooperation within the telecom sector and beyond to speed up the deployment of fixed and mobile very high capacity (VHC) networks. They make policy proposals to adapt the rules to the new technological and societal context, taking into account the trade-offs between competition, investment, innovation and resilience, and current competition and sector-specific rules. The report builds on a previous CERRE report, ‘Implementing co-investment and network sharing‘.

During this webinar, the authors will present concrete policy recommendations to facilitate (or at least not impede) such investment given the urgency brought about by technological progress and exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis.

European policy makers have acknowledged the need for network investments. Keeping pace with 5G and future service/industry developments is a top priority for the European Commission. In the Gigabit Communications of 2016, the Commission set ambitious connectivity targets, which led to a new policy objective in the European Electronic Communications Code: “the promotion of connectivity and access to, and take-up of, very high capacity networks, including fixed, mobile and wireless networks, by all citizens and businesses of the EU”. Substantial network investments are needed, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only increased this urgency.