The planned switch from analogue television broadcasting systems to terrestrial digital TV opens up lots of prospects for viewers and telecoms operators, who are extremely interested in a significant share of the Hertz frequencies being freed up as a result. These are sufficiently sizeable and sensitive economic issues for the European Commission to take up the dossier and announce that it will present a first multiannual European programme for radio spectrum at the end of September.

Digitalisation and the compression of data offered by new technologies will from now on, to put it simply, allow several terrestrial digital TV channels to be broadcast in a single frequency rather than a single analogue channel. The aim of this technological jump is to make it possible to increase the number of channels for consumers. In the context of the development of new applications, such as mobile internet, broadband, mobile phone and satellite navigation systems, freeing up so many frequencies is whetting the appetites of telecoms operators and digital services providers. But this ‘digital dividend’ is also of great interest to the Commission in that it could allow it to respond to ambitious objectives assigned to the European Union in terms of universal coverage of the internet.

In its 2020 strategy, the EU set itself the target of making basic broadband available to all Europeans by 2013 and then ensuring sure that, by 2020, everyone has access to connections speeds of well above 30 Mbps (megabytes per second). It is economically unlikely that a ‘wired’ infrastructure – in contrast to wireless networks – will be available for the most isolated regions in the short or medium term. The digital dividend would therefore be an opportunity to respond to the ‘digital divide’ in broadband internet between urban and rural areas.

While the use of the internet becomes a little bit more essential every day, only 70% of Europeans in rural areas (against 93% on average) can access high-speed internet; a coverage rate of the rural population which falls to 50% or less in some countries such as Greece, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania. Without high-speed internet, it is difficult for a farmer to check specific weather forecasts, for a self-catering cottage to offer people in another country the chance to make reservations, for an SME to do business or for an active self-employed person to work from home while the list of professions that allow people to work remotely is long and growing fast: writer, translator, publisher, accountant, e-learning trainer, designer, stylist, website designer to name just a few.

OPEN TO COMPETITIO

Although frequencies continue to be the responsibility of each member state, the Commission has waded into the debate thanks to the efforts of Viviane Reding. These are now being pursued by her successor, Neelie Kroes. Reding had pushed through the idea that coordination at EU level would make it possible to get the best out of the ‘digital dividend’, putting a figure on the economic impact of such a European approach at €20 billion to €50 billion of extra gains over a 15-year period based on the future demand for advanced services (terrestrial broadcasting, wireless high speed internet) by comparison with a scenario in which EU countries would act in isolation.

While all the parties concerned agree to find a legal way to deal with the issue at EU level, there are some who want to put the brakes on the Commission’s wishes. One is Cable Europe, an association representing the European cable TV industry, with 94 million subscriptions to high-speed internet, TV and telephone services in the EU.

“There is definitely the need for a good coach because the market cannot move ahead alone, but there are more than enough referees in the member states,” explains Caroline Van Weede, the managing director of Cable Europe, referring to the telecoms regulation authorities in the EU27.

This is an opinion that the Commission does not share. “Without decisive intervention from public authorities, the result obtained may not be optimal, ie the high-speed networks will continue to be concentrated in some areas with high population densities with high costs of access to the market and high useage tariffs,” reads the Digital Strategy advocated by Kroes in May.

The Commission also warns against the risks of frustration for internet users who are becoming more and more demanding and underlines the impact for innovation on Information and Communications Technology markets worth €250 billion per year.

This position delights the big European telephone operators (Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, France Telecom and Belgacom) as confirmed by the positions taken by ETNO, their representative association at the European level. “Mobile and wireless networks will play a key role in achieving European objectives in terms of high-speed internet. The digital dividend is a key opportunity to respond to consumers’ demand,” Michael Bartholomew, the director of ETNO, said during the fifth European conference on spectrum management, on 23 and 24 June in Brussels. This view is shared by GSME, the European association representing mobile phone companies. GSME hopes that a common approach at the European level, between member states and the Commission, will allow electronic telecoms services to benefit from an allocation of frequency very quickly.As long-time users of the spectrum, European public TVs are encouraging the Commission to “apply the same rigour to bandwidth as to broadcasting given that it is about quality of service, universal access and economic and technical efficiency”, Lieven Vermaele, the technical director of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said at the same conference in Brussels, which Commissioner Kroes also attended.While the EBU sees coordination as being useful, it is more sceptical about harmonisation, using the case of Spain in support of its argument. While Spain could boast, along with six other EU countries (Germany, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Sweden and the Netherlands), of having already carried out the shift to digital well before the 1 January 2012 date set by the Commission, the situation has still not been resolved due to the premature distribution of some of its high frequencies between public TV stations. But this is an obstacle which, rather like annoying interference for the public – when two networks overlap – does not seem to be insurmountable in the eyes of the operators and the Commission.The distribution of these ultra high frequencies, which European public TV stations are also applying for to offer high definition to their customers, should not therefore, according to specialists, be more than a question of time. But the issue of quality and cost will need to be taken into account. If market mechanisms do not generate the expected profits, will telecoms operators agree to respect their commitments in terms of services or will they deprive consumers and society as a whole of a precious good that has been public up until now?