06 February 2024

Gigabit infrastructure act: Council and Parliament strike a deal for faster deployment of high-speed networks in the EU

In Europe, the roll-out of fibre and 5G could be a lot easier with less administration. We are tackling that administrative burden through the so-called Gigabit Infrastructure Act. We have struck a preliminary agreement with the European Parliament now. This would allow European citizens to surf faster using fibre or 5G.

To accelerate the deployment of gigabit network infrastructure across Europe, the Council presidency and European Parliament’s negotiators reached a provisional agreement today on a proposal to replace the 2014 broadband cost-reducing directive (BCRD) by the gigabit infrastructure act (GIA).

GIA is an essential piece of legislation to achieve Europe’s connectivity objectives and targets, as set out in the EU’s digital compass for this decade, and to deploy the next generation electronic communications networks in the EU.

With the conclusion of the trilogue, Belgium demonstrates its firm commitment to fast and optimal internet access for all. By unifying the network across the whole territory, we are building bridges into a wider European ecosystem, demonstrating our interest in Europe-wide harmonisation. This initiative will not only promote fast connectivity for our fellow citizens, but also economies of scale for the operators and businesses involved.

Main objectives of the new legislation

The new law aims to lower the unnecessarily high costs of the electronic communication infrastructure deployment, partially caused by the permit-granting procedures before deploying or upgrading the networks. These procedures are still complex, sometimes lengthy, and different across member states. 

The regulation also aims to speed up the deployment of the networks, provide legal certainty and transparency for all economic actors involved, and provide for more efficient planning and deployment processes for operators of public electronic communications networks.

This law of minimum harmonisation nature also addresses deployment and access to in-building physical infrastructure. It is expected to facilitate cross-border applications and to allow stakeholders, electronic communications operators, equipment manufacturers or civil engineering companies, to achieve better economies of scale.

The co-legislators’ amendments

The provisional agreement maintains the general thrust of the Commission proposal. However, the co-legislators amended parts of the proposal, mainly regarding the following aspects:

• a mandatory conciliation mechanism between public sector bodies and telecom operators was introduced as an intermediate step to facilitate the permit-granting procedure
• an exception for a transitional period for smaller municipalities was included, as well as specific provisions to promote connectivity in rural and remote areas
• the factors when calculating fair and reasonable conditions for access were clarified
• a specific provision to address the presence of intermediaries between landowners and infrastructure operators was introduced
• specific provisions were agreed on a voluntary ‘fibre-ready’ label for buildings
• several carve-outs for critical national infrastructure were included in the text.

Finally, given that the current retail price for regulated intra-EU communications will expire on 14 May 2024, the provisional agreement provides for the continuation of consumer protection, especially for vulnerable users, by extending the price caps, which are €0,19 per minute for calls and €0,06 per SMS message at present.

Council

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