Digital Networks Act debate highlights role of competition

Digital Networks Act debate highlights role of competition

On 14 October, BEREC Chair Marko Mismas (AKOS, Slovenia) and incoming BEREC Chair Alejandra de Iturriaga (CNMC, Spain) took part in the annual WIK conference in Germany, contributing to high-level discussions on the future of electronic communications in Europe.

The conference brought together representatives from the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council, BEREC, industry and academia to exchange views on the forthcoming Digital Networks Act and the future direction of Europe’s telecoms policy.

Debating the future Digital Networks Act

Marko Mismas participated in the keynote session, where speakers addressed issues linked to the proposed new regulatory framework, including the transition to fibre networks, the principle of technological neutrality, copper switch-off, access regulation in a fibre environment, mobile policy objectives, spectrum policy, satellite authorisation and the future governance of telecoms markets in the EU.

In his intervention, the BEREC Chair welcomed the forthcoming Digital Networks Act's strong focus on strengthening Europe’s competitiveness, while underlining that competition remains one of the main achievements of European telecoms regulation and should remain a stand-alone objective in the future framework.

He stressed that competition has helped reduce prices, improve service quality, encourage innovation and support investment across the sector. Referring to the recent BEREC’s analysis of European telecoms markets, he noted that market performance in Europe is considerably stronger than is sometimes portrayed.