On Wednesday 21 February, the European Commission will present its ‘White Paper’ on the future of telecommunications and the construction of the future digital infrastructure (see EUROPE 13269/9). As announced by the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, the emphasis should be on facilitating cross-border telecommunications operations, creating pan-European infrastructure operators, and providing the necessary funding.
“Pan-European operation of core networks and network slices is the technical solution that technology offers today to make it happen. We need to remove all obstacles to the deployment of this and future innovative solutions, and discuss how to answer legitimate questions about security, such as data retention”, explained Thierry Breton on 10 October.
The paper should also return to the question of the funding needed to increase the level of connectivity - in particular through 5G - when the European Commission had estimated that some €200 billion would be needed to achieve the objectives set out in the programme for the ‘Digital Decade’. On 27 September 2023, the first progress report on the programme underlined that, without further action and investment, the EU would fall well short of its targets (see EUROPE 13259/3).
A section of the paper should also be devoted to cloud service operators, whom the Commission sees as key players in the future of telecommunications. In this respect, the harmonisation of the rules to which these players are subject should be an important issue.
The ‘White Paper’ will be followed by a consultation on the subject. This will serve as a basis for drafting proposed legislation - the future ‘Digital Network Act’ (DNA) - which could be adopted before the summer of 2025. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)