POSITION | DIGITAL POLICY | DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Resilient. High-Performing. Sustainable. Towards Europe's future-proof digital infrastructure. BDI’s policy paper on the European Commission’s White Paper “How to master Europe's digital infrastructure needs?”
18 June 2024 Executive Summary Connectivity is central to our society and economy and will only grow in importance in the future. Business models connected to Internet of Things (IoT) devices, autonomous vehicles, AI as well as the Industrial Metaverse require digital networks that not only provide minimal latency in combination with the needed capacity, but also the necessary resilience in light of increasing geopolitical tensions. In addition to these requirements, connectivity must also support the green transformation, which necessitates increasing sustainability and decarbonization of the ecosystem. However, Europe’s digital networks of today are not yet ready to address these challenges. The European market is fragmented, has a high number of independent providers and lacks the financial strength to fund the substantial investments needed to tackle the technological challenges it faces. In 2022 the mobile average revenue per user (ARPU) of electronic communications operators in the EU stood at only 15 EUR, as opposed to 42.5 EUR in the US and 26.5 EUR in South Korea. Against this background, the newly published White Paper “How to master Europe's digital infrastructure needs?” will form the basis for the next European Commission's legislative agenda for the telecoms sector. It identifies necessary policy reforms to improve the investment climate and structural market conditions to achieve the EU's digital objectives and create the digital networks of the future. German industry very much appreciates the attention to digital infrastructures assigned by the European Commission. Overall, the Commission’s analysis correctly describes the status quo of digital infrastructures in terms of investment challenges, resilience and technological future-proofness. It rightfully acknowledges the need for a more harmonized regulatory approach to digital networks, with the ultimate goal of achieving the Digital Single Market, which was highlighted in the recent Letta Report. It also rightly identifies the low profitability of the electronic communications sector and the resulting inability to fund the substantial investments required as a key problem that has to be addressed. BDI fears that if these issues are not swiftly addressed, Europe’s communication infrastructure will not enable European companies to develop and utilize the digital solutions necessary for maintaining European industry’s global competitiveness. Recognizing the importance of digital networks for European industry’s competitiveness as well as access to needs-based connectivity, the Digital Networks Act (DNA) should be the key digital policy initiative of the next European Commission. Apart from that, and in light of the numerous digital regulations passed by the current Commission, the overall focus should lie on implementing and harmonizing existing regulatory tools.
Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie e.V. | www.bdi.eu Philipp Schweikle | Working Student Digitalization and Innovation | P.Schweikle@ifg.bdi.eu Steven Heckler | Deputy Head of Department Digitalization and Innovation | S.Heckler@bdi.eu