2017 is election year in Germany; but despite this, the federal government should still continue to push for concrete objectives in Internet policy in the coming months, and not simply get into campaign mode. This was stressed by Michael Rotert, eco Chairman of the Board, at the eco New Year’s reception in Berlin yesterday.
Rotert especially sees a need for action on the topic of digital infrastructure: “The federal government has already recognized that the expansion goals for Germany outlined in the Digital Agenda 2014-2017 will not be sufficient to remain internationally competitive. We welcome more generous objectives, such as the 5G initiative that was started last year, and the view to the Gigabit Society. At the same time it needs to be clear that it’s not enough to simply create ever more ambitious objectives – the federal government also needs to implement them.” Digital infrastructure policy should therefore not be reduced to simply broadband expansion, according to Rotert. “A high-capacity digital infrastructure also requires a future-oriented legal and regulatory framework which simultaneously protects consumer interests and guarantees openness to innovation. Only then can the Gigabit Society really take off.“
Rotert also pointed out that network policy needs to be approached as fundamentally European. Legal certainty is one of the most important requirements for a strongly innovative and competitive European Internet industry. Conflicting approaches, such as occurred recently with blanket data retention – which was re-introduced in Germany and in the meantime has been rejected by the European Court of Justice – harm companies and would suffocate innovation.
From the perspective of the Bundesnetzagentur (Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway), this results in the following challenges:
“High-capacity broadband networks are the foundation for successful digitalization. The expansion objective of 50 Mbit/s can only be a first step on this road. The Bundesnetzagentur therefore wants to make use of all possibilities to rapidly advance network expansion. As a result, we are open to providing fresh impetus, with the help of further development of and increasing flexibility in the government’s concept,” Jochen Homann, President of the Bundesnetzagentur, said at the eco New Year’s Reception.
