European developments April 2017

The Fibre to the Home (FTTH) Council Europe published the results of its study into the cost of deploying FTTH throughout the EU: €137 billion would be required to provide a complete overlay of the EU28 countries. This cost includes 100% homes passed and 50% connected (with 50% of the most remote 5% both passed and connected). This figure takes into account the FTTH infrastructure already deployed which currently stands at 36% with 11% of homes connected. The Council argues that this figure makes the European Commission’s Gigabit Society 2025 targets attainable.

The Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG) published a new report outlining the implications of Brexit for the UK’s digital communications sector. The report flags that the timing of Brexits is “particularly acute” as the sector gears up for the transition to the next phase of communications technologies in the form of 5G and ultrafast broadband. It calls for the Government to minimise risks to investment and innovation and ensure that the UK can continue to compete globally; ensuring regulatory certainty is key to this and the report recommends that the Government should align with current EU rules in the medium term. Out-Law reported that the UK government has been asked by Parliament’s European Scrutiny Committee to clarify its approach to implementing policies set out in the EU's Digital Single Market strategy in light of Brexit.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) published a call for views on the derogations (exemptions) contained within the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The derogations enable the UK to exercise discretion over how certain provisions will apply, in relation to aspects such as the processing of personal data for scientific research purposes with appropriate safeguards to ensure people's rights and freedoms are accounted for. Also see commentary from Out-Law, which also reported on new draft guidance from a European committee of data protection authorities on examples of the type of data processing activities that businesses should carry out data protection impact assessments (DPIAs) for under the GDPR. The GDPR will come into effect in the UK on 25th May 2018, as in other EU countries.

European Commission developments:

• The first EU-US Privacy Shield annual review will take place in September 2017. The EU-U.S. Privacy Shield provides a framework for transatlantic exchanges of personal data for commercial purposes. It also ensures that any access by public authorities to personal data transferred under the new arrangement on national security grounds is subject to clear conditions, limitations and oversight.
• A report of the Security and Privacy in the Internet of Things (IoT) workshop held on 13th January 2017 was published. Participants were asked to come with, reflect and comment on concrete minimum baseline security and privacy principles to create a trusted IoT environment.
• The Commission launched a public consultation on fears about the future of the Internet, as part of its Next Generation Internet initiative. A series of surveys will ask for their views on topics such as privacy and security, artificial intelligence, net neutrality, big data and the impact of the digital world on jobs, health, government and democracy. Also see the Guardian.

Other developments this month:

• BBC News reported how public wi-fi providers in Germany could be held liable for illegal downloads.
• Cardiff University is to lead the five-year Supercomputing Wales programme, which will provide access to powerful computing facilities to existing science and innovation projects across Wales. A total of £9m will be committed by the European Regional Development Fund via the Welsh Government, supported by a multi-million pound investment by the university partners.
• Ireland’s Department of Communications, Climate action and Environment published the final Broadband Intervention Map for the National Broadband Plan. An additional 300,000 premises across Ireland that were previously part of the state intervention area will now be provisioned with high speed broadband by Eir within 90 weeks;  84,500 premises have been added to the state intervention area where no commercial deployments are planned. Seventy-seven per cent of premises will have access to high speed broadband by the end of 2018 and the majority of the remaining premises will have access by the end of 2020. Also see Silicon Republic.