Politicians should give fresh impetus to broadband development initiatives, says Liikanen
Commissioner for Enterprise and Information Society Erkki Liikanen has called on politicians to make renewed efforts to promote broadband development in Europe. Speaking at the 'accelerating Broadband in Europe' workshop in Brussels on 28 January, Mr Liikanen said that a move from 'interest to action' was necessary in order to address several major issues such as financial difficulties, costly investments and slow take up, which are currently delaying broadband deployment and the delivery of its social benefits in Europe. 'The benefits of broadband in terms of productivity gains, growth, and employment are expected to be significant. Broadband will stimulate new businesses and improve productivity and innovation in companies, from manufacturing to entertainment. It will increase inclusion in society and raise living standards through better education, health, e-government and teleworking,' added Mr Liikanen. To ensure complete coverage throughout Europe, the Commissioner identified the need to deploy, in parallel, current technologies such as ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) and cable modem, as well as new technological facilities such as 3G (third generation) mobile, fixed wireless, satellite, fibre optic and powerline. Mr Liikanen stressed that such diversity would help solve 'access problems in different geographical areas, according to local features. For example, Fixed wireless access, satellite, and powerline communications have the potential to fill in where fixed facilities cannot reach.' Healthy competition between network infrastructures is also necessary in order to stimulate broadband development as it inevitably leads to competition at services and content level. According to Mr Liikanen, statistics show that the greatest availability and take up of broadband tends to occur in countries where there is competition among network providers. The Commissioner added that public policy would need to be fully exploited in order to facilitate such competition and promote the wider availability of open and interoperable platforms such as cable television, digital TV, 3G or R-LANs (wireless local area networks). During his speech, Mr Liikanen also highlighted the complex nature of supply and demand, which influences not only the rollout structure and its content and services but also the regulatory policies. 'Uncertainty about demand and difficult capital markets are complicating investment decisions making expected returns extremely volatile. Demand depends on users' willingness to pay for fast transmission of rich content.' The eEurope 2005 Action Plan, according to the Commissioner, addresses this issue by dealing with the development of services and content as well as focusing on the deployment of a secure broadband infrastructure. Mr Liikanen concluded by calling upon Member States to place the 'full implementation of the [eEurope 2005] Action Plan' high on their governments' agenda.