European developments March 2016

This month the European Commission published the first findings from two recent consultations: the preliminary trends identified in its consultation on the need for internet speed and quality beyond 2020, together with the summary report from its consultation on the evaluation and review of the regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services (more background on these consultations here).

The consultation on the need for internet speed and quality beyond 2020 found that while bandwidth requirements will continue to increase, “other fixed connectivity features will gain significant importance in the future - notably upload speeds, latency, reliability and uninterrupted access”. A full report will follow the Commission’s initial analysis. Findings of the regulatory framework consultation included the continuing importance of connectivity, the need for further regulatory reform to promote investment and to reflect marketplace/technology developments and the importance of universal service. Again, a full report will follow.

Also this month the European Commission launched a call for proposals under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Telecom making €32 million of EU funding available for the deployment of European Digital Service Infrastructures (DSIs), together with the first findings from an inquiry into geo-blocking which found that the practice is widespread in the EU: “This is partly due to unilateral decisions by companies not to sell abroad but also contractual barriers set up by companies preventing consumers from shopping online across EU borders.”

Finally the Commission reported the decision by Amazon Web Services (AWS), following extensive consultation with Jisc and GÉANT, to waive data egress charges for qualified researchers and academic customers, representing “what could be an important step towards widespread adoption by the R&E community of cloud services in Europe.”