White Paper - How to master Europe’s digital infrastructure needs?

White Paper - How to master Europe’s digital infrastructure needs? Lisbon Council 23 April 2024 Peter Stuckmann 1 DG CONNECT Europe’s connectivity infrastructure – we are late Fibre coverage • 56% of all households, 41% in rural areas; • Slow copper switch off; • Low take up of at least 1 Gbps broadband (at 14% in 2022 at EU level), just above half of the EU households adopted at least 100 Mbps br. [...] 5G • 5G: Basic coverage at 81%, 51% in rural areas; • high-quality (3.6 GHz) only at 41%, stand-alone just beginning; • it took 8 years to license spectrum in all Member States; • 5G auctions cost €24bn to EU operators between 2015 and 2021. [...] Massive investment needs for underlying infrastructures and transformation of telcos’ business model Ø Digital Decade: at least €200 billion investment needs for fibre and full 5G (6G requires further network densification) Ø Need to become credible cloud players (Telco Cloud) in partnership with large cloud players in telecoms and beyond 2 Vision: Telecom sector facing unprecedented transformatio. [...] • Massive investment needs for underlying infrastructures and transformation of business model Scale - based on Single Market • Focus on core network and operation cross-border/CoO provisions to address fragmentation and obstacles to the single market • Service platform at European scale in balanced position with OTT content platforms • EU-level spectrum licensing model for satellite services Secu. [...] possibility to assign to the Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) a coordinating role 6 White Paper - How to master Europe’s digital infrastructure needs? (2) Pillar II: Completing the Digital Single Market • Adapt regulatory framework: realise full potential of digital single market • rethink scope of application and objectives • ensure regulatory level playing field (equivalent.