After Digital Britain – now it's Digital Europe

Reding: "Digital Europe is fast track to economic recovery"

The European Commission has outlined a Digital Europe strategy intended as the major vehicle to fast-track European economic recovery.

Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Telecoms and Media, launched the plan in her Ludwig Erhard Lecture 2009 at the Lisbon Council in Brussels yesterday.

Reding said the strategy has two parts.

"Action which EU institutions can take or prepare this year on the basis of work already started, and second, action which we believe should become a priority for the next five years," she said.

Countries tagged with "first mover" status by Reding in her address are France, Britain, Germany and Finland.

France's Numérique 2012 plan aims for a broadband universal service commitment (USC) of 512Kbit/s for all French households by 2012, which is just a quarter of the speed proposed for Lord Carter's 2Mbit/s Digital Britain USC.

Germany's Breitbandstrategie is aiming for a USC of 50Mbit/s for 75 per cent of its population by 2014, and Finland is committed to a 100Mbit/s USC.

Reding said there were four steps to promoting competitive infrastructures for a Digital Europe.

"[We need] to bring into force the reform of Europe's telecoms rules," she said.

"Experts estimate that the present regulatory fragmentation in telecoms costs Europe’s businesses €20bn (£17.2bn) per year."

The second step Reding outlined is in line with UK communications regulator Ofcom's thinking on encouraging investments in next-generation access.

"Where investors take very large investment risks to bring fibre to the home, Europe's regulators should be flexible," she said.

3G mobile phone services were the target for Reding's third step.

"We are preparing important measures to abolish regulatory restrictions and reduce the cost of offering 3G and more advanced mobile services," she said.

The most important task aimed at achieving this is "reform of the EU's GSM Directive to re-use the radio spectrum in the GSM band for new mobile services, thereby leading to savings of up to €1.6bn in capital costs for the mobile industry."

Finally, Reding said the ongoing switchover from analogue to digital TV in Europe would be accelerated, which would release radio spectrum for mobile broadband estimated as worth between €150bn and €200bn.

"I call therefore on all EU governments: Don't wait until 2012, the EU-wide deadline for the final analogue switch-off, to bring these benefits to your businesses and citizens. Act swiftly now," said Reding.