European developments November 2016

Delivering a European gigabit society: The European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association (ETNO) published a new report offering “a practical perspective on how European telcos can contribute to achieving Europe’s connectivity ambitions in an inclusive way”. This follows the announcement by the European Commission of its vision for a European gigabit society in September 2016. The main finding of ETNO’s report is that “the best path towards the gigabit society lies in a technology-inclusive approach supported by a broad range of investment models”. The technology mix should include fibre to the home (FTTH) and advanced copper-based networks, as well as hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) and 5G mobile networks. Liberty Global also published a report arguing that meeting the Commission’s ambitions will require investors in broadband networks to deploy a range of technologies; also see this previous post for details of a similar report commissioned by BT.

European Commission news: the Commission published a results pack covering the most recent and prominent results from EU-funded cybersecurity-related projects, including the MUSES project to develop a device independent, user-centric corporate security system able to cope with seamless working on multiple devices and the RASEN project to develop a toolbox and downloadable methods designed to help corporations and organisations approach cyber security in a more holistic manner.

Other news from the European Commission:

• It launched a new consultation on the Next Generation Internet; see this previous post for more on the Commission’s ambitions for broadband.
• It announced that the French national broadband scheme had received state aid approval to invest €13 billion to connect all households and businesses in France to very high speed broadband by 2022.
• The winners of the 2016 European Broadband Awards included the RemIX Project, a distributed internet exchange for remote and rural networks in the Scottish Highlands (more on this here).
• It reported that GÉANT, the UbuntuNet Alliance, and Indiana University are to co-lead a $3.25M grant to improve research collaborations between Europe, Africa, and the US.​ Improved intercontinental networks will support critical research in food security, environment preservation, and HIV treatment.
• It also reported on the outcomes of the 9th EU-Brazil ICT Dialogue, citing the transatlantic sub-marine cable linking directly EU and Brazil, which is expected to be operational in a year or so from now, as one of the most prominent examples of EU-Brazil cooperation (more background on this here). The GÉANT consortium, in cooperation with EU Member States and their South American partners will reserve  part of the new cable’s capacity for research and innovation activities

Other European news this month:

• Telecompaper reported that the German government plans to roll out the necessary infrastructure for 1Gbps download speeds in Germany by 2025. To fund the project, the German federal government has to date provided €4 billion and committed a further €10 billion to the next phases. Last month Out-Law reported that Germany's education department plans to invest €5 billion over the next five years to provide faster internet connections, WiFi and tablet computers to schools and colleges.
• Telecompaper also reported that the Italian government has announced plans to free up frequencies to launch trials of 5G technology in three Italian cities next year.
• The London Internet Exchange (LINX) and the Paris and Marseille Internet exchange France-IX announced they are to collaborate to enhance the value of peering in Europe and beyond. The collaboration will cover areas such as operations and software development as well as commercial activities and promotion.
• The Department for Culture, Media and Sport reported on a roundtable between Government ministers and leading technology companies on forthcoming Brexit negotiations with the EU.