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FEATURE CARRIER FOCUS


Europe has low overall FTTx coverage (including FTTC/VDSL, FTTB, FTTH) and very low FTTH and FTTB coverage, compared to international peers. [BCG - ETNO 2013]


Thankfully, regulatory concerns and dwindling industry revenues have been noted by the European Union


problems has been the sector’s breathtakingly fast rate of change. ‘Te scale and complexity of our market is enormous and the ability and capacity, of regulation within our existing framework, to keep up with it, despite best intentions is a challenge,’ he says. Te original EU regulatory framework was


designed to oversee the single national copper infrastructure, built with public subsidy, and owned and operated by monopolies. During the 1980s, this framework largely focused on privatisation, but come the 1990s, attention had shiſted to the fixed incumbents and pushing competition in networks. By the turn of the century, competition


amongst services was being promoted, reflecting


the more complex landscape, but now the industry needs more. Infrastructure, today, consists of a complex patchwork of local networks within a single member state, some operating under competitive conditions and others requiring regulation. Each network has a different performance and different technical capabilities, and this has brought myriad regulatory challenges concerning data services, the internet, and more. As Galvin points out, the EU updated its


regulatory framework for electronic communications in 2009 in a bid to adapt to rapid sector developments, but even some of these relatively new measures are already outdated. ‘One thing we have learned is that competition


is becoming more and more intense as different platforms are rolled out,’ he says. ‘Te principle of regulation is to act as a proxy for competition and then withdraw as competition emerges, but it’s oſten the case that measures are maintained for far longer than necessary, diminishing a company’s ability to invest.’ Does present regulation hamper investment?


Galvin is adamant ‘hamper’ is too strong a word but like many of his peers in Europe-based


Eircom’s Pat Galvin believes industry change has outpaced EU telecoms regulation


Issue 3 • Spring 2014 FIBRE SYSTEMS 19


telecoms businesses, he is certain current practices do not encourage forward thinking. ‘I think there needs to be more creative


thinking, if our current framework is to deliver the type of investment we need. And in terms of changing the framework, there needs to be more of a deregulatory agenda,’ he says.


Time for change


Tankfully, regulatory concerns and dwindling industry revenues have been noted by the European Union. Late last year, the Commission


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