Cloud providers should play by same rules as telcos, EU commissioner tells MWC

Investing for technology leadership

“Europe is already a research and technology powerhouse. Now we need to invest in mastering the ongoing technological transformations and ensure that research leads to new markets,” Breton said. That is why the Commission is proposing the creation of a European ecosystem of innovators across the computing continuum called Collaborative Connected Computing or 3C Network.

This initiative seeks to ensure that investment in the deployment of networks as a service leads to the development of real ‘made in Europe’ services and applications in various economic sectors. Specifically, it aims to support the deployment of a secure and high-speed end-to-end connectivity infrastructure to connect the different actors and devices involved in a specific use case, using terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks. Initially, three large-scale pilots will be worked on in the areas of healthcare, mobility, and smart communities. 

A digital single market

The second pillar of the Digital Networks Act has to do with the creation of a digital single market, with its own regulatory framework that levels the playing field between players in the ecosystem.

“Currently, our regulatory framework is too fragmented. We are not making the most of our single market of 450 million potential customers. We need a true digital single market to facilitate the emergence of pan-European operators with the same scale and business opportunities as their counterparts in other regions of the world. And we need a true level playing field, because in a technological space where telecommunications and cloud infrastructures converge, there is no justification for them not to play by the same rules,” said the European Commissioner. 

This means, for Breton, “similar rights and obligations for all actors and end-users of digital networks. This means, first and foremost, establishing the ‘country of origin’ principle for telecoms infrastructure services, as is already the case for the cloud, to reduce compliance costs and investment requirements for pan-European operators.” It also implies, he continued, “demystifying the question of the optimal number of operators, because there is no magic number in this field. We can’t have a narrow view of markets and their players.”

Finally, Breton advocated “Europeanizing the allocation of licenses for the use of spectrum. In the technology race to 6G, we cannot afford any more delays in the concession process, with huge disparities in the timing of auctions and infrastructure deployment between Member States: we cannot afford the same outcome as in 5G auctions, where, after eight years, the process is still not concluded.”