Vodafone response to the public consultation by ... - BEREC - Europa

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� In Romania, Vodafone announced in April 2010 the national deployment of its 3G services in the 900 MHz spectrum, which now enables access to mobile Internet for 90% of Romania’s population, at speeds of up to 21.6 Mbps. 3 This clearly demonstrates that the EU-led moves to allow UMTS 900 refarming and to assign UHF spectrum are key steps to further increase mobile broadband availability. Vodafone has undertaken a detailed analysis of the potential use of mobile technology to bring broadband service to rural areas without fixed broadband in the UK (with the aim to extend the analysis to other European countries). The results show that: � mobile is a cheaper technology than fixed for bringing broadband to rural areas � with the right conditions (see below for details) coverage could reach over 99.8% of UK households with a limited amount of subsides with a minimum of 1 MBit/s service offered at current market prices � Only a few customers in extremely remote areas will be uneconomical to serve. They could be reached by satellite (two way satellite broadband services are already available on the market at prices not too distant from mobile or fixed broadband prices) The analysis is based on the UK case and relevant data 4 . The achievement of this is connected to a number of conditions: � Availability of at least 2x10 MHz of 800 MHz or 900 MHz of spectrum for LTE and/or HSPA � At least 1 MBit/s of broadband speed � Only one network infrastructure available in the area (i.e. network sharing and/or wholesale access to third parties) � Market prices for the service (activation fee and monthly fee) � Reception through an outdoor antenna connected to the modem and internal telephone cabling (equipment financed by customer through an activation fee) � Provision of telephony service (i.e. a percentage of the customer will also subscribe to a fixed telephony package) � Take up of the service in 5 years equivalent to current broadband penetration levels If state intervention will be necessary to reach 100% coverage, then any initiative should respect the guidelines for the application of State aid rules to the deployment of broadband networks. The 3 See http://www.vodafone.ro/personal/servicii/reteaua-vodafone-acoperire/harta-de-acoperire/index.htm 4 Data from Digital Britain Report 4
Guidelines are being reviewed by the Commission. Vodafone has provided its views to the Commission within the public consultation in 2011. 5 Basic broadband – demand side issues A number of independent researches, including the latest from the Commission within the digital agenda scoreboard 6 , show that the use of internet is constantly increasing. In the last year, according to the Commission report, the number of citizens that have used internet at least once has increased by 4 percentage points to 74%.However, this number is still low and still with wide differences depending on the country (19 percentage points between the highest and lowest country), age (up to 32 percentage points) and education (up to 54 percentage points). A high percentage of non-users in the elderly segment of the population is not a surprising factor. They do not need internet to study or work (or more in general use traditional computers) and their perceived utility of internet services can be limited. According to the same analysis, the main reasons why many citizens do not have a broadband connection can be summarised as follows: � Up-front cost including the cost of the equipment (e.g. PC, modem) � No interest in accessing the internet � On-going costs of broadband � Security reasons However, the same Commission data show positive signs as internet usage is increasing in all categories and countries and that the cost of the equipment and the on-going costs of broadband are decreasing in terms of importance. This is likely to be a factor related to the more widespread use of mobile broadband. The cost of the equipment necessary to connect to the internet is becoming less relevant in the last years thanks to the following trends: � The cost of desktop computers and laptops has remained stable while performance has greatly improved. This is an ongoing trend of the last couple of decades. � The introduction of the netbooks that have less performance, less memory and simplified operating systems and software in exchange of a lower price (the average starting price of a netbook is about €200). While sales of such terminals have decreased in recent months as customers seem to prefer full laptops or tablets, they still cover the needs of users that want a more complete equipment than simply a tool to internet access. � The cost of the DSL or mobile broadband modem is now usually included in the ongoing broadband access fees. � Tablets and smartphones can now be fully considered as tools to access the internet for most type of uses. The starting price of an android smartphone is now close to €100, while 5 See http://www.vodafone.com/content/dam/vodafone/about/public_policy/position_papers/broadband_state_aid_vo dafone_response_300811.pdf 6 See http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/digital-agenda/scoreboard/docs/pillar/usage_content.pdf 5
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Vodafone response to the public consultation by ... - BEREC - Europa

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