Challenges of fibre-based infrastructures: a review of the NGA debate in Europe

To move towards an information society is a political goal of governments around the world. To achieve this goal, high-capacity broadband networks are regarded as fundamental infrastructure. An increase in broadband growth in a country results in increased opportunities for its people to participate in the network society. The EU, in particular, has initiated policies and regulations for more than ten years so that benefits of the information society can be fully enjoyed. The success of the EU is mostly based on DSL technology, which is driven by telecommunications regulations. Nevertheless, new applications and the increasing number of users will require more and more network capacity. While the EU leads the world in broadband penetration, it may fall behind in terms of competitiveness in the global market. The digital agenda in Europe has therefore been initiated to increase competitiveness through new fibre-based infrastructure. The main focus of this paper is on the NGA Recommendation. The paper analyses NGA in the EU based on a conceptual model that addresses the interaction between the strategic and the sector agenda.