EU Broadband Networks: Europe seeks to spur building of fast broadband networks - by Claire Davenpor

The European Commission has set out rules aimed at reducing the cost of building high-speed broadband networks, in a move that shows how Brussels is seeking more power over the telecoms sector.

Fiber Optics

The initiative is important because European leaders are worried that debt-laden telecom operators' slow pace of investment is saddling the region with weak infrastructure that over time could hobble its already recession-wracked economies.

It also comes as the EU cuts funding for broadband roll-outs. EU budget cuts, which must be approved by Parliament, hammered out in February cut such funding for rural projects to just 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) from 9.2 billion.

The draft regulations issued on Tuesday, which Reuters reported in early February, requires new and renovated housing to be broadband ready, calls for ducts and other infrastructure to be shared among telcos on fair and reasonable terms and shortens the permitting process.

It also calls for water, electricity and gas companies to share their underground ducts with telecoms firms to cut the cost of creating high-speed broadband networks.

The Commission said digging up streets to lay fiber accounts for up to 80 percent of the cost of deploying new networks, adding that the new rules would save up to 60 billion euro.


The construction in Europe of fiber networks lags far behind Asia and some parts of the United States, worrying policymakers who see the infrastructure as a key motor for economic growth. Europe had 5.95 million fiber broadband customers by mid-2012, a fraction of the more than 58 million subscribers in Asia.

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