Connectivity package – guide

The European Commission presented on 21 February a set of possible actions to foster the innovation, security and resilience of digital infrastructures.

What are the challenges for the future of connectivity?

The White Paper identifies a number of challenges for the future of connectivity:

• Technology challenges: Rapid developments in communications and computing technologies are giving rise to new business models and network applications. They require a continuous exponential increase in data processing, storage, and transmission, but also in technology capacity.
• Investment needs: Europe needs substantial and coordinated investment of more than €200 billion from the private and public sector to ensure the roll-out of high-capacity digital networks, which will help us meet the targets set in the 2030 Digital Decade Policy Programme. Moreover, the successful transformation of leading telecom operators into network and cloud service providers would require additional significant investment capacities.
• Lack of a fully integrated single market for telecoms: there are currently 27 national telecoms markets in the EU with different supply and demand conditions, network architectures, coverage levels of very high-capacity networks, regulatory approaches on procedures, national spectrum authorisation procedures, different (partly harmonised) regulatory approaches.
• Fragmented approach to radio spectrum management: Earlier attempts to establish greater EU coordination in spectrum management were not fully successful, and, in parallel, discrepancies and delays have been observed in the timing of spectrum assignments and in network infrastructure deployment across Member States.
• Lack of a level playing field: Currently, the existing EU regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services does not reflect the convergence between cloud and telecoms providers and does not ensure a regulatory level playing field and equivalent rights and obligations for all actors and end-users of digital networks, both public and private.
• Risks of excessive dependency: Modern technologies are leading to new markets and business models, such as network sharing. This opening of traditionally “closed” electronic communications networks brings opportunities but also bears the risk of excessive EU dependence on large non-EU providers.
• Need for more innovation and industrial capacities across the telecom value chain: To ensure the economic security of its network infrastructures, the EU needs to enhance and better coordinate research efforts and multi-disciplinary cooperation, and improve access to finance by EU actors, including by coordinating public and private investments.
• Sustainability: The ICT sector accounts for around 7%-9% of global electricity consumption, around 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions and increasing amounts of e-waste. Used properly, digital technology can outweigh its emissions and help cut global emissions, but this entails the need for further investments by operators.
• Security: In a geopolitical environment increasingly marked by tension and conflict, the security and resilience of critical infrastructure should be based on trusted suppliers, on the development of security standards for end-to-end connectivity, and on a higher level of resilience and integration at all levels: terrestrial, non-terrestrial, access and backbone networks, including submarine cable infrastructures.

What are the main technological challenges for the digital connectivity infrastructure?

New business models and markets are emerging from technological developments around the App Economy, Internet of Things, Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence or new forms of content delivery such as high-quality video streaming.

These applications require a continuous exponential increase in data processing, storage, and transmission. This has led to the virtualisation of electronic communications networks functions in software and to the shifting of these functions to the cloud or the edge.

This new model of network and service provision relies not only on traditional electronic communications equipment, networks and service providers but also on a complex computing continuum of cloud, edge, content, software and component suppliers, with boundaries increasingly blurred between these various actors.

However, this inevitable opening of the traditionally “closed” electronic communications network in a Network-as-a-Service approach exposes network capabilities to third parties and raises the prospect of large non-EU providers becoming leading players in such ecosystems.

In the current geopolitical context, there is a risk to our economic security, especially if this leads to additional excessive dependencies on non-EU players in the entire digital service sector. It is therefore key that European players develop the necessary capacities and scale to become service platform providers.

What is the “Connected Collaborative Computing” Network (3C Network)?

The 3C Network is a future ecosystem that spans over the entire computing continuum, from semiconductors and radio technologies to connectivity infrastructure, data management, and applications.

The launch of a number of large-scale pilots is a key step towards the creation of the 3C Network that set up end-to-end integrated infrastructures and platforms and bring together players from different segments of the connectivity value chain and beyond.

To implement the 3C Network, the Commission may consider proposing large-scale pilots that set up end-to-end integrated infrastructures and platforms and bring together players from different segments of the connectivity value chain and beyond.

These pilot infrastructures would be used to test innovative technologies and applications (including demos, proof of concepts, and early deployment of technologies). They could be linked, where appropriate, to the European network of competence centres in semiconductors, which are maximising synergies with the European Digital Innovation Hubs. Initial pilots could focus on 5G corridors, e-health and smart communities.

What benefits will these initiatives bring to EU citizens?

Increased connectivity and the technologies that come with it, will bring many benefits to people in the EU.

Along with better connection speeds, security and coverage, better connectivity means:

• Safer and more energy-efficient workplaces, which use smart energy grids and sensors in buildings to improve the use of resources;
• Cheaper and cleaner transport through 5G-enabled Connected and Automated Mobility, which will improve road safety and road traffic, as well as cut down CO₂ emissions;
• Better healthcare, with personalised medicine recommendations; faster drug development as supercomputers can access data quicker; and easier patient monitoring thanks to telemedicine;
• A cross-sector reduction of the environmental footprint in digital, building a more sustainable future for us and our children.

How will increased connectivity support the adoption of new applications of high societal value?

Increased connectivity and the digital network infrastructures that support it will help foster the emergence of new technologies, and integrate and improve existing technologies, which in turn will support Europe’s future competitiveness. For example, increased connectivity can facilitate:

• Automated driving;
• Smart manufacturing;
• Personalised health care;
• Artificial intelligence (AI);
• The Internet of Things (IoT);
• Web 4.0.

Where are we on copper switch-off?

Currently, the process of copper switch-off varies considerably in the EU. By 2023 the leading fixed line operators had announced plans for switching off their copper networks in 16 Member States (BE, EE, EL, ES, FI, FR, HU, IE, IT, LU, MT, PL, PT, SE, SI, SK), while actual decommissioning has already commenced in 10 Member States (BE, EE, ES, FI, LU, MT, PL, PT, SE, SI). However, the progress within these Member States varies significantly.

What initiatives to strengthen connectivity already exist?

The Commission has already adopted several initiatives to strengthen our connectivity networks.

It fostered a regulatory framework, for example through the Gigabit Infrastructure Act and the Gigabit Recommendation, to incentivise the roll-out of gigabit networks, such as fibre and 5G.

It also introduced new initiatives to channel public and private investments and boost production and innovation in key technological areas, such as the Chips Joint Undertaking or the IPCEI Next Generation Cloud Infrastructure and Services.

The Commission also launched the Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU), with EUR 900 million of EU funding, conducting research and innovation for advanced 5G and 6G networks, and ultimately promoting European leadership in future networks.

Moreover, funding programmes such as the Connected Europe Facility (CEF) or the Digital Europe Programme (DEP) contribute to bridging the gap between digital technology research and market deployment, benefiting Europe’s citizens and businesses.

What are the next steps?

Following the presentation of the connectivity package, the Commission has launched a public consultation on the scenarios for possible policy action set out in the White Paper. The consultation is set to close on 30 June 2024.

The Recommendation on the security and resilience of submarine cables was adopted on 21 February 2024 and is addressed to Member States. It identifies a series of targeted actions that can be pursued by Member States at national and Union level for:

• Assessing and improving the security and resilience of existing and new submarine cable infrastructures by setting up a new Cable Security Toolbox;
• Supporting the deployment or significant upgrade of submarine cable infrastructures via Cable Projects of European Interest (‘CPEI’), under certain conditions.

Source: European Commission