Gigabit regulation: EU Parliament paves the way for faster broadband expansion
The Gigabit Infrastructure Act should make it easier to approve applications for high-speed networks and eliminate additional costs for telephone calls in EU.
The symbolic image shows fiber optic installation work in the Canadian city of Lethbridge
(Bild: Daniel AJ Sokolov)
With a record-breaking majority of 594 votes in favor and only 7 against, the EU Parliament adopted the long-controversial draft Gigabit Infrastructure Regulation on Tuesday. It aims to reduce the bureaucracy, costs and administrative burden associated with the planned connection of all EU citizens to high-speed networks by 2030. In the future, a presumption of approval is to apply: Applications for network expansion that are not answered within four months will be deemed to have been tacitly approved. However, the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) regrets that the EU rules fall short of the German requirement of three months and therefore do not help with national implementation.
According to the Gigabit Infrastructure Act (GIA), which negotiators from the EU legislative bodies agreed on in February, all newly constructed or extensively renovated buildings must be equipped with fiber optics. Endless digging work should come to an end. Construction work must be coordinated between fiber optic installers and other public utilities and their work. The member states are to set up contact points in the form of a "Single Information Point" (SIP) to provide easily accessible, centralized and digital information on permits and construction work. Critical national infrastructures (KRITIS) are excluded.
Intra-EU surcharges may no longer be levied from 2029
In principle, network operators in EU countries will have to give competitors access to ducts and masts in future to reduce overall expansion costs. Exceptions apply to Germany and Italy. Providers there can refuse to overbuild existing fiber optic networks by sharing existing infrastructure if they offer solutions such as a virtual access product ("bitstream"). The background to this extra sausage is that the German Telecommunications Act (TKG) already provides for such an option. The industry association Buglas expressed its relief: This would allow the interests of companies "that have invested a great deal of effort in building fiber optic networks that extend at least as far as the buildings" to be better considered. Incentives to open up and use existing lines (open access) would also be strengthened.
Extra charges for calls, text messages and data usage from home to other member states beyond general mobile roaming have been limited in the EU since 2019. The limit for call surcharges is €0.19 per minute. This regulation expires on May 14. The GIA therefore envisages that the price caps will continue to apply for the moment, but that intra-EU communication surcharges will be abolished in 2029 – before then. However, the EU Commission is to issue regulations to protect providers from fraud and similar adversities. In order to close a legal loophole, the GIA will enter into force just three days after publication in the EU Official Journal - instead of after 20 days. This is because the draft still has to go through the EU Council of Ministers, which is scheduled for April 29. Telecom providers could otherwise have temporarily raised charges in mid-May.
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