Kurth welcomes focus of BEREC’s stakeholder forum
October 17, 2016
As BEREC’s 4th Stakeholder Forum opened in Brussels, Cable Europe Executive Chairman Matthias Kurth welcomed the issues under discussion: providing connectivity to every European citizen and facilitating the development of the digital economy.
Kurth highlighted BEREC’s report – Challenges and drivers of NGA rollout and infrastructure competition – published earlier this month, as an indication of BEREC’s encouraging and proportionate approach to stimulating NGA growth in Europe.
“We’re delighted to see that BEREC explicitly highlights the crucial role played by cable networks in reaching NGA targets in the EU in their report. At this moment in time, when policy makers are discussing the new telecommunications framework of the future, it’s encouraging for industry to see European regulators embrace the fact that there is more than one way to build the gigabit society. One size will not fit all, and a mix of technologies will ultimately deliver our shared ambitions”.
Adding to the debate, Cable Europe has today released further data from Arthur D Little around the role cable plays in fuelling infrastructure based competition. The latest figures show that when cable is present, telco incumbents are pushed to deploy their own next generation technology. The statistics also illustrate that incumbents invest more per household in cable markets.
“Infrastructure competition is the key driver in stimulating value, quality and innovation,” declared Kurth. “BEREC acknowledges this in their report, stating that ‘An important insight from the analysis is that the main factors identified and discussed are factors which are largely or completely exogenous to regulatory interventions by NRAs’. The first of these three important driving factors is infrastructure competition ‘mostly from DOCSIS 3.0’. Cable technology will deliver performances equal to FTTH and 5G before 2020, keeping markets dynamic and consumers best served with quality, value and choice. I look forward to the coming debate and congratulate BEREC on their direction”.