Gigabit infrastructure act: Council adopts position for faster deployment of high-speed networks in the EU

To accelerate the deployment of gigabit network infrastructure across Europe, the Council adopted its common position (general approach) on the Commission proposal to replace the 2014 broadband cost-reducing directive (BCRD) by the gigabit infrastructure act (GIA).

GIA is an essential piece of legislation to achieve Europe’s connectivity objectives and targets as set out in the EU’s digital compass for this decade, the so-called ‘Digital decade policy programme’, adopted by the co-legislators last year, and to deploy the next generation electronic communications networks in the EU.

Main objectives of the proposal

The Commission proposal aims to lower the unnecessarily high costs of the electronic communication infrastructure deployment, partially caused by the permit-granting procedures before deploying or upgrading the networks. These procedures are still complex, sometimes lengthy, and different across member states.

The proposal also aims to speed up the deployment of the networks, provide legal certainty and transparency for all economic actors involved, and provide for more efficient planning and deployment processes for operators of public electronic communications networks.

This proposal of minimum harmonisation nature also addresses deployment and access to in-building physical infrastructure. It is expected to facilitate cross-border applications and to allow stakeholders, electronic communications operators, equipment manufacturers or civil engineering companies, to achieve better economies of scale.

The Council’s amendments

The Council’s common positions maintains the general thrust of the Commission proposal. However, based on numerous requests by member states, the Council amended some aspects of the proposal, as follows:

• the notion of ‘tacit approval’ was deleted
• an exception for a transitional period for smaller municipalities was included
• the factors when calculating fair conditions for access were clarified
• it was also clarified that not only fibre can be used to reach very high capacity
• a number of carve-outs for critical national infrastructure were included in the text.

The text of the Council’s position ensures overall that member states have a wide autonomy in issuing more detailed rules and can go further on several important elements of this new regulation establishing a minimum harmonisation on measures to reduce the cost of gigabit electronic communications networks.

Next steps

Following today’s adoption of the Council’s negotiating mandate (general approach), the Spanish presidency will be able to enter talks with the European Parliament (‘trilogues’) and intends to make as much progress as possible in these negotiations until the end of the year.

Background information

The broadband cost reduction directive (BCRD, 2014/61/EU), currently in force, aimed to facilitate the roll-out of high-speed electronic communications networks by lowering the costs of deployment with a set of harmonised measures. The digital targets, on which BCRD was based, have either been reached or become obsolete since 2014. For example, though the ratio of European households having access to a 30 Mbps internet network has risen from 58,1% in 2013 to 90,1% in 2021, this speed is not any more future proof, given the increased need of businesses and citizens to access networks with much higher capacity.

Beside the advances in the digital technologies since 2014, other factors have made the revision of the BCRD necessary as well. Low returns on equity and high investment costs that prevail in the telecom industry have started to derail the progress to reach the 2030 digital targets laid down in the Digital Decade Policy Programme. The Commission estimates that the investment gap between the present level and what would be necessary to reach these connectivity targets, is around EUR 65 billion annually.

On 23 February 2023, the Commission submitted a proposal on measures to reduce the cost of deploying gigabit electronic communications networks and repealing Directive 2014/61/EU (gigabit infrastructure act). On 3 June 2023, the Telecommunications Council in Luxembourg took note of a progress report on this file.