European developments September 2017

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker delivered his 2017 State of the Union Address, which included a number of new cyber security proposals including the establishment of a new European Cybersecurity Agency to assist Member States in dealing with cyber-attacks and a new European certification scheme to ensure that products and services are cyber secure (also see this fact sheet). The new agency will build on the existing European Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA), which this month published results from a survey on approaches to Implementing ICT security certification across the EU.

Also from the European Commission this month:

• Over €24.5 million of EU funding was requested under the second Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Telecom call for 2017 through 76 project proposals in the areas of Cyber Security, eDelivery, eHealth and eProcurement.
• New studies on broadband coverage and fixed broadband costs in Europe, monitoring progress towards broadband targets. The proportion of UK homes passed by next generation access (NGA) networks increased by 1.8 percentage points to reach 92.3%, substantially higher than the EU average (75.9%). Growth of NGA technologies in rural areas was more dramatic, where coverage increased by 30.8 percentage points, covering 78.2% of rural households at the end of June 2016. Also see commentaries from ISP Review and uSwitch.
• A study on satellite broadband services for schools, which concludes that, despite some limitations, satellite can be an efficient option for poorly connected schools. It also suggests that a voucher scheme could be used as a tool to close the broadband gap for schools.

Other developments this month:

• Point Topic published an analysis of 4G pricing and usage caps across Europe; UK consumers pay lower tariffs but often receive lower data allowances than consumers in other European countries (also see ISP Review).
• A new report from the Carnegie Trust suggested that cheaper, better quality broadband could be a “digital dividend” of the Brexit process, if the UK Government takes a more ambitious approach to the digital sector.
• Vodafone Germany announced a €2 billion investment in ultrafast fibre broadband services, expected to deliver around 13.7 million new gigabit connections to German consumers and enterprises. Also see commentary from the Telegraph.
• Reuters reported that France has set  2025 as a new goal for the roll-out of fibre to the home services across the country.
• Siro, the joint venture formed by Vodafone and ESB announced its withdrawal from the bidding process to deliver Ireland’s National Broadband Plan (more here and here). This leaves two bidders remaining: Eir and the consortium of Enet, SSE, Granahan McCourt and John Laing Group. Also see here, here and this previous post for further background.