Public policy targets in EU broadband markets: The role of technological neutrality

Abstract

The European Commission has recently sought to substantially revise how it regulates the telecommunication industry, with a key goal being to incentivise investment in high-speed broadband networks. Ambitious goals to incentivise investment in high-speed broadband networks have been set across the European Union, initially in the 'Digital Agenda for Europe' and more recently in its 'Gigabit strategy'. These goals reflect the view of many that there are widespread and significant socio-economic benefits associated with broadband. Our analysis explores the consequence of target setting at a European level, in terms of encouraging investment and picking which technology should be adopted within the context of technological neutrality. We demonstrate that while public policy targets might implicitly favour specific technologies, especially when gigabit targets are defined, the technological choices that occur within individual Member States are shaped by the complex and dynamic interaction between a series of path dependencies that may vary significantly across as well as within Member States. Adopting an ecosystem perspective, we propose a conceptual framework that identifies the key factors associated with technological neutrality and informs a rational decision-making process.

Go for Gigabit? First Evidence on Economic Benefits of High‐speed Broadband Technologies in Europe

“…Technological uncertainty arises in terms of the optimal market integration of wireline fibre and wireless 5G access infrastructures as regards the provision of wireless broadband access and connecting base stations with optical fibre lines to core networks. Eventually, hybridfibre access networks using XG.fast transmission technology could become a costefficient fibre backhaul for 5G networks (Briglauer et al, 2018). These infrastructure deployments are inherently complex as they are complementary but conducted at different times, with 5G deployment lagging, presumably, many years behind.…”

Principle of Technological Neutrality in Trade Facilitations: A Legal Perspective

“…Trade regulations such as services, intellectual property and paperless trade, show how important the role of the principle of technology neutrality is that it must be given universal recognition and complemented by policy flexibility if needed due to different conditions in each country (Shadikhodjaev, 2021). The European Commission explicitly introduced the concept of technological neutrality into its regulatory framework (Briglauer et al, 2020).…”

Effectiveness and Efficiency of State Aid for New Broadband Networks: Evidence from OECD Member States

“…This technological restriction in old broadband technologies can be mitigated by deploying NBNs based on fiber-optic transmission technologies and network infrastructures. The closer fiber connections are deployed to the customer's premise in the access network, the higher the quality characteristics (such as bandwidth levels) that can be offered to customers; wireline "fiberization" scenarios include various technologies and network architectures and give rise to different deployment costs (Briglauer et al, 2020a;Timmers et al, 2018). In simplified terms, fiber-optic cables can either be deployed to the premises of consumers ("high-end fiber") or still partly rely on "old" copper wire and coaxial cable connections in the remaining segment of the access network ("hybrid-fiber") connecting the customer premises with the last distribution point.…”

“…This could, however, change drastically with further advances in mobile access technologies. 5G, in particular, is expected to yield disruptive changes in quality dimensions with, for example, bandwidth levels up to several Gbit/s (Briglauer et al, 2020a).…”

“…First, the extent of white areas is endogenously determined by chosen public targets and their specific definition of desired 2 NBN stands for new broadband network [2] bandwidth levels (and other quality parameters). In most cases, national or supranational targets are derived from a political process and not based on empirical evidence (Briglauer et al, 2020a). Second, public broadband targets might result in regulatory games on the side of network operators.…”