Brussels, 15/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - ETNO, which represents the interests of incumbent telecom operators, has said that it is prepared to work closely with the Greek Presidency in an effort to set out an ambitious agenda for the European digital economy in the mid-term review of the “Digital Agenda for Europe”. In an open letter on 14 January to the Greek Presidency, ETNO stated that the European Union had to unleash EU's potential to invest and innovate at continental and global levels, and inspire visionary leadership accordingly. It also declared that “2014 is the year in which we must speed up our effort towards building a Smarter Europe and ETNO is ready to help Europe becoming a fully connected continent”.
In 2017, global IP traffic will shoot up exponentially and reach 1.4 zettabytes per year (10 to 21). ETNO asserts that “the future will be more and more connected and that this trend should be embraced”. It would like the European Union to take a number of important initiatives in the field of digital policy. The operators welcome the determination of the Greek Presidency to move forward with the European Parliament on the legislative package proposed by the European Commission to make progress with the Connected Continent Regulation and the Regulation on reducing the cost of broadband deployment. These measures should help to serve the overarching objective of boosting investments in Europe's next generation networks, which are essential for a connected continent and ETNO will work towards achieving these objectives. To build a “Smarter Europe” where everyone and everything is connected, the steps must be carefully planned. The review must take stock of the rapidly changing digital environment. ETNO says that the status quo or simple amendments to existing provisions would be disastrous. The agenda needs to be ambitious and the regulatory framework has to eradicate obsolete provisions that are barriers to market growth and that prevent a level playing field being set up for all market actors. ETNO also explains that “the traditional paradigm regulating only networks no longer responds to the gigantic challenge of connecting our societies and economies and ensuring the interoperability of devices and the EU wide accessibility and portability of content”. The new framework should also be in perfect synergy with the decisions taken in other political areas, particularly with regard to merger controls, data protection and copyright. In conclusion, ETNO recommends that the Greek Presidency adopt “a visionary approach to policy making, which reflects the exciting potential that telecoms and ICT services have to offer, and to act courageously to help move us towards a truly digital age”. (IL/transl.fl)