Telecom Groups Urge New EU Presidency to Stress Next-Generation Network Rollout
Key telecom priorities of Hungary, which assumes the EU presidency Jan. 1, are “strategy, security and spectrum policy,” Information and Communications Minister Zsolt Nyitrai said. The byword for the term will be “continuity” of ongoing work on the Europe 2020 strategy, the country’s foreign minister said at a Tuesday news briefing. That work includes several communications items agreed upon in November 2009 by the then-upcoming Spanish, Belgian and Hungarian presidencies. Industry groups, meanwhile, urged the presidency to focus on fiber deployment and investment in new networks. ISPs said their priorities for coming months include EU-level talks on traffic data retention and ISP liability.
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Hungary wants to extend the European Network and Information Security Agency’s term and give it more flexibility to protect against network threats, Nyitrai said earlier this month. ENISA’s authorization expires in March 2012. Completion of a five-year radio spectrum policy plan is a top priority, he said. The new presidency’s tasks in the area of e-communications are outlined in the European digital agenda, which aims to roll out fast and ultra-fast broadband by 2020, Nyitrai said at a Dec. 3 Telecom Council meeting in Brussels. The three presidencies’ 2009 agreement also includes work on issues such as universal service in e-communications, deployment of next generation networks, network security, e-commerce and digital anti-piracy efforts.
Hungary is in a “perfect position” to put a “special focus” on telecommunications and fiber networks during its term, said the Fiber-to-the-Home Council Europe. Although fiber deployment is just starting there, data shows there are large fiber projects in Eastern European countries such as the Baltic States, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Bulgaria, said Director General Hartwig Tauber. The key priority of the incoming presidency should be to create the right conditions for private investment in high-speed broadband networks, said the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association. It also stressed the need to open up the 800 MHz “digital dividend” spectrum band to mobile broadband services and urged the presidency to “works towards a timely adoption” of the proposed multi-year spectrum policy plan.
Hungary’s priorities are already set out in its joint program with Spain and Belgium, said European Internet Services Providers Association Policy Head Andrea D'Incecco. ISPs face several key issues in 2011, he said, including: (1) Possible changes to the EU data protection and data retention directives. (2) A European Parliament report on Web blocking. (3) The European Commission’s copyright action plan. (4) The EC internal security strategy, which envisions a private-public partnership to fight online illegal activities. (5) ISP liability for digital infringement and possible changes to the e-commerce directive.