EU ANTITRUST: HOT TOPICS & NEXT STEPS

Prague, Czechia

EU ANTITRUST: HOT TOPICS & NEXT STEPS 2022

3. Analysis and Problem Solving

3.1 Very high capacity networks as the priority of the European Union EU strategic documents (European Commission 2010a, 2010b, 2015) show that the priority for the Union over the last ten years has been to create a smarter Europe by supporting digital social and economic transformation and making full use of information and communication technologies. According to the strategy prepared for the five years until 2025 entitled Shaping Europe’s Digital Future (European Commission 2020a), the EU is to ensure: 1) development, deployment and uptake of technology that works for people; 2) development of a fair and competitive economy using digital technologies, products and services; 3) shaping of an open, democratic and sustainable society. The COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated the need to accelerate the digital transformation of the EU. As the Commission noted in its CommunicationDigital Compass 2030: the European Way for the Digital Decade (European Commission 2021), the COVID-19 pandemic ‘has radically changed the role and perception of digitalisation in our societies and economies, and accelerated its pace. Digital technologies are now imperative for working, learning, entertaining, socialising, shopping and accessing everything fromhealth services to culture’.The outbreak causedby the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has led EU Member States to take measures to limit face-to-face social contact. This has resulted in increased demand for internet access and increased web traffic. As the European Commission noted in its Recommendation for the deployment of 5G networks in the EU (European Commission 2020b), ‘electronic communications networks, in particular very high capacity networks, have been playing a crucial role in the response to the crisis by enabling remote working and schooling, healthcare, and personal communication and entertainment’. One of the elements within the ‘communications’ area, to which the Commission pays special attention, is mobile broadband access and the implementation of 5G networks in the European Union. 5G mobile networks will provide users of mobile devices with very high-speed connectivity. In 2016, the Commission adopted the Communication 5G for Europe: An Action Plan to ensure early deployment of 5G infrastructure across the EU. In this document, the European Commission emphasised that the rapid deployment of 5G networks would enable the Union to become a leader in the global telecommunications sector, strengthen Europe’s global competitiveness and represent an opportunity for the rapid development of the EU economy and society. The aim of the plan was to launch 5G services in all EU member states by the end of 2020 at the latest. According to the most recent targets expressed in the Digital Compass, by 2030 all European households are to have access to a high-speed Gigabit network, and all populated areas are to be in range of 5G networks (European Commission

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