ecta (european competitive telecommunications association)

As the year draws to a close, we would like to extend our heartfelt wishes to you and your loved ones for a joyous holiday season filled with peace, warmth, laughter, and treasured moments.

Telecoms industry association ecta (european competitive telecommunications association) welcomes the Council Conclusions on the Commission’s White Paper entitled "How to master EU's digital infrastructure needs?". The Council Conclusions unequivocally reaffirm that fostering effective competition in European telecommunications markets is the key to boosting Europe’s competitiveness. The Council Conclusions emphasize the importance of maintaining ex-ante regulation in electronic communications markets, to address a lack of effective competition as determined by National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs). The Council highlights the need for tailored approaches that consider Member States’ specific circumstances while ensuring regulatory predictability and alignment with existing measures like the European Electronic Communications Code. It also stresses that fostering competition remains essential for driving innovation, improving service quality, and enhancing consumer welfare. Accordingly, the focus should be on reducing red tape — the administrative burdens currently faced by European telecom operators — rather than on eliminating ex-ante regulation through political mandates without robust technical justification from National Regulatory Authorities. ecta (european competitive telecommunications association) is confident that the European Commission will take the Council Conclusions into utmost consideration in its forthcoming actions. https://lnkd.in/eEgUuMua

ecta (european competitive telecommunications association), Connect Europe, GSMA - Public Policy, Ericsson & Nokia welcome the European Commission efforts for a sustainable 🇪🇺 telecom sector. #Taxonomy can be key to achieving #DigitalDecade targets & guiding telecom investments to align with EU climate goals. https://lnkd.in/eb4EdaAU

👏 Telecoms industry association, ecta (european competitive telecommunications association) congratulates the incoming college of the European Commission, in particular Henna Virkkunen and Teresa Ribera, and is eager to work with them. As competition is a prerequisite for competitiveness, a diversified electronic communications sector, embracing a multitude of participants, both large and small, and nurturing a diverse array of products and services, is essential to empower the entire European economy and unleash its innovative potential in the digital realm. This is essential for Europe’s global competitiveness. The ex-ante SMP-based regulatory framework delivers strong benefits in terms of investment, innovation, and consumer welfare, and we believe that it must be maintained going forward, including the markets listed in the Relevant Markets Recommendation. 👉 It is essential for competition, and therefore for end-user interests. 👉 It is essential for cross-border consolidation. 👉 It is essential for EU harmonization today and tomorrow, even more so with the accession countries. 👉 It is essential for the independence of the regulators. The peak investments are behind us, and we are on track according to the investment needs presented by the EC in 2016 and again in 2023, at the halfway point. 💪 We are committed to contributing constructively on: 🤝 Spectrum fees – ensuring that operators can focus their spending on network roll-out, rather than on licence fees. 🤝 FTTH take-up. 🤝 Copper switch-off. 🤝 Building trust between businesses and telecoms to help develop new use cases and foster innovation in other sectors. 🤝 Better understanding of the needs of business markets. 🤝 Sovereign cloud and collaboration. Read our manifesto: A Vision for an Innovative, Competitive, Inclusive, and Greener Europe https://lnkd.in/enV2EwNR

Let it be said that ecta (european competitive telecommunications association) members, such as Groupe iliad, are instrumental in building a strong telecom and digital landscape in the EU. #competition

🔥 Eurogroup ministers warn against excessive use of industrial policy tools In a press release published on 4 November, the Eurogroup ministers consider that the "widespread use of industrial policies (...) should be avoided as it risks undermining the Single Market" This is certainly not the message that telecoms incumbents in Europe seem to share with policy makers, as they claim that more consolidation would benefit that same Single Market. Moreover, the concept of network fees or similar interventions is often dubbed as an "Internet tax", which seems to clash with the need to "avoid risks such as rent-seeking" highlighted by the Eurogroup. 🗣️ “(...) industrial policies should be limited in scope, future-oriented, aimed at creating a favourable business environment to boost investment and focused on technologies and sectors rather than individual companies.” 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eK4vPKHN #BetterRegulation #competitiveness #connectivity #Council #DigitalEU #DigitalNetworksAct #EU #EUCouncil #EUpolicy #FairShare #FutureTelecoms #IPInterconnection #NetNeutrality #NetworkFees #OpenInternet #telecoms #TelecomPolicy #TelecomRegulation #WhitePaper

ecta's Director General, Luc Hindryckx participated to a debate: “White paper on connectivity – next steps” organised by the European Internet Forum and hosted by MEP Ms PILAR DEL CASTILLO together with Renate Nikolay, Juan Luis Redondo Maillo, Marc Vancoppenolle, Agustín Reyna and Laszlo Toth For those that missed it here are his points: 1.      First, Competition and Competitiveness There is a kind of confusion between competitiveness and competition, and some people tend to oppose the two terms, although we believe that competition is a prerequisite to competitiveness in democratic countries. A diversified electronic communications sector, embracing a multitude of participants, both large and small, and nurturing a diverse array of products and services, is essential to empower the entire European economy and unleash its innovative potential in the digital realm. This is essential for Europe’s global competitiveness. 2.      We prefer to see the glass as half full rather than half empty, and even more so when it is much more than half full. Why? Well, first let’s recognise that the policy makers and the telecom sector have done a great job. The ex-ante SMP-based regulatory framework delivers in terms of investment, innovation, and consumer welfare, and we believe that it must be maintained going forward, including the markets in the list of relevant markets. • it is essential for competition, and therefore for end-user interests. • it is essential for cross-border consolidation. • it is essential for EU harmonization today and tomorrow, even more so with the accession countries. • it is essential for the independence of the regulators. Second, the EU internal telecoms market exists: • Colt Technology Services serves businesses in a seamless way across the 27 member states. • TRANSATEL (an NTT company) is a genuine pan-EU IoT provider, and its Airbus contract helps Airbus remain competitive compared to Boeing. So it contributes to the EU's global competitiveness. Third, in terms of connectivity, the EU is doing great compared to its democratic peers. FTTH deployments are well advanced. 5G is developing well. The peak investments are behind us, and we are on track if we look at the investment needs presented by the EC in 2016 and again in 2023, at mid-way. 3.      My third point is that, of course, not everything is perfect. There are areas that can be improved, and we are committed to contribute constructively: • Spectrum fees – ensuring that operators can focus their spending on network roll-out, rather than on licence fees. • FTTH take-up. • Copper switch-off. • Building trust between businesses and telecoms to help develop new use cases and foster innovation in other sectors. • Better understanding of the needs of business markets. • Sovereign cloud and collaboration. So let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

ecta's Director General, Luc Hindryckx participated in the #HU2024EU and #NMHH conference titled “Regulation Reloaded - Changing the rulebook of European Communications.” The main messages were: The EU model based on electronic communications regulation is a success story to be proud of: 👍 Promotion of competitive telecoms markets, combined with effective ex-ante regulatory measures, is driving investments, positive innovation, and consumer benefits. Hence, the ex-ante regulatory framework based on SMP assessment must be preserved. 💪 Europe excels with respect to its global peers when it comes to combining the deployment of gigabit networks, their use by consumers and professional users, as well as their affordability and inclusion. 👏 The successes of several ecta members - entrepreneurs who believed in the promise of the EU regulatory framework, invested at their own risk, and innovated - show that it has enabled entrepreneurial success stories of which EU can be proud and that should be a source of inspiration. People who strongly believe in the telecom sector and have real long-term industrial visions, like Groupe iliad, Bouygues Telecom, or Neterra, to mention but a few. 👎 The share price is not a right proxy to evaluate long term investments such as FTTH.   The report from DG Competition, “Protecting competition in a changing world,” should have a more central place and role in the debate.   An electronic communications sector, embracing a multitude of participants, both large and small, and nurturing a diverse array of products and services, is essential to empower the entire European economy and unleash its innovative potential in the digital realm. Hence, it is essential for the EU competitiveness.   What is at stake is the ability of all the other sectors of the economy to innovate, and this cannot be realized with a concentrated EU telecoms market, even less with well established companies. Unfortunately, the White Paper missed the opportunity to delve into the EU business markets that remain concentrated, although the essence is in the EU businesses and their ability to innovate and remain competitive.   Fortunately, there are genuine pan-European operators that are perfect examples of the EU internal telecom market, such as Colt Technology Services or TRANSATEL (an NTT company).   When it comes to the financial health, a recent study for the Dutch Government analysing the major 10 incumbents’ performance in terms of free cash flow generation shows that the health of the telecoms sector is not catastrophic, as others are presenting it.   This does not mean that there is nothing to be improved. We are absolutely ready to constructively help in different areas: 👉 How to improve the take-up of FTTH; 👉 How to accelerate the copper switch-off and migration to FTTH; 👉 How to facilitate network deployment; 👉 And most important, how to (re) build trust between EU businesses of all sectors and the telecoms sector.

Brussels, 9 September 2024 ecta (european competitive telecommunications association) takes note of the Draghi Report and regrets its one-sided approach on telecoms, supporting explicitly and exclusively the vested interest of a few large incumbents and the objectives pursued by  powerful lobby groups by proposing a recipe that, by its very nature, cannot unleash innovation and investment. https://lnkd.in/e74_GDBW

ecta (european competitive telecommunications association) responds to the European Commission’s White Paper “How to Master Europe’s Digital Infrastructure Needs? https://lnkd.in/eVJGce42