DIGITALEUROPE - EUROPE 2030 A DIGITAL POWERHOUSE FINAL WEB_PBP

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EUROPE 2030: A DIGITAL POWERHOUSE
20 solutions to boost European tech
leadership and resilience
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A 5G connectivity framework fit
for 6G rollout
Achieving gigabit connectivity for
everyone and everywhere in Europe
by 2030 is crucial. Connectivity plays
a pivotal role in various aspects of our
lives, from enabling businesses to thrive
and innovate to ensuring that citizens
have access to essential services
and information. Without gigabit
connectivity, Europe will fail to achieve
all of its other societal goals, including
tackling the climate crisis.
The 5G rollout has been disappointingly
slow in Europe, and without action,
we risk repeating the same mistakes
when deploying 6G in the future. To
address this and meet Europe’s 2030
connectivity targets, we must improve
the regulatory environment to make
it more investment-conducive to
unleash private investments in network
upgrades. Poor return on investment
and significant delays in spectrum
auctions across member states are
deepening the fragmentation of
the Single Market and deterring
investment.
Costly spectrum prices and fragmented
auction rules, nationally and across
member states, are among the top
reasons for the delay. Fragmentation
is heightening market uncertainty and
making many European countries
unattractive for business.
We call on European leaders to
initiate a long-overdue discussion and
radically overhaul telecom governance
with a new Connectivity Act. 22 This
should include the establishment of a
single EU-wide spectrum governance
authority to ensure consistent
spectrum policy and binding EU
decisions.
Additionally, we must reevaluate the
attractiveness of the European market
for EU and foreign investors, which is
damaged by poor public funding and
a lack of ability for telecom operators
to merge and scale up across Europe
to tackle national fragmentation in
auctions.
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Mind the Gap: A New Connectivity Act for the Digital Decade, DIGITALEUROPE, 2022