📋 Tender Overview
European Commission published a White Paper setting out a vision of the future needs of the EU's digital infrastructure. The Ministry of Transport and Communications will inform Parliament of the White Paper in an e-letter on 7.6.2024.
In the White Paper, the European Commission presents trends and challenges for the development of digital infrastructure and puts forward twelve proposals to address them. The challenges concern investment and strengthening the technology base. The proposed measures are divided into three categories:
1. industrial and technological policy
2. measures
to improve the internal market 3. measures to improve safety.
The Commission's proposals are based on the EU's Digital Decade 2030 programme. In Finland's view, the EU's single market for electronic communications should be developed in order to strengthen the objectives of the Digital Decade and Europe's global competitiveness.
Finland has global business and world-class research, especially in wireless communications networks. As a leading country in the development and deployment of communications networks, Finland actively contributes to the Commission's initiatives based on the White Paper. The aim is to promote the rapid roll-out of fibre and 5G networks, maintain Europe's technological leadership and promote the early deployment of 6G across the EU.
As part of the White Paper, the European Commission published a recommendation on safe and resilient submarine cable infrastructure. In particular, Finland welcomes the fact that the safety and resilience of submarine cable infrastructure are promoted jointly and comprehensively.
Finland aims for fast and reasonably priced deployment of frequencies in the EU
Finland calls for ambitious targets for the innovation and development of wireless communications networks. Finland considers it important to have a broad-based approach to the development of wireless communications networks in order to take into account cloud technologies, artificial intelligence, edge computing and quantum computing, among others.
Finland considers it important that the regulation of electronic communications is mainly market-based and technology-neutral. The regulation of spectrum policy, network licences, central networks and universal service must continue to enable special national circumstances and national security to be taken into account.
Finland considers it important that the use of limited and socially and economically significant radio frequencies in the EU is as efficient as possible. Finland considers it important that decisions on spectrum usage rights and their detailed conditions will continue to be made mainly at national level, as Member States have national differences. In addition, it must be possible to take into account the frequency needs of national defence and public authority networks nationally also in the future.
According to Finland, the aim of spectrum policy should be to commit Member States to the rapid and affordable use of spectrum, and Member States moving faster must not be slowed down. The use of spectrum should be made more efficient within existing regulatory instruments and structures.
Finland does not want more regulation of the internal market
Finland considers the European Commission's objective of consistency between market regulation and competition law regulation to be important. Finland considers that additional regulation should be refrained from in the internal market. Instead, the focus should be on uniform and predictable implementation of regulation, closer cooperation between authorities and reducing administrative burdens.
Finland considers that universal service in electronic communications is intended as a safety net for basic services of last resort for end-users. The level of universal service must continue to take national special characteristics into account, and universal service must be able to be implemented in a technology-neutral manner. Finland has reservations about expanding the funding base for universal service.
