”If Europe is to be home to the new digital revolution where new services and innovations create prosperity and economic growth, we need to have the fastest broadband speeds in the world”, said EPP Group Vice-Chairman Gunnar Hökmark MEP at a breakfast debate which he organised together with European Competitive Telecommunications Association in the European Parliament today.
”EU:s current target that all Europeans should have access to 30 Mbps broadband is already outdated. Other global actors are moving ahead with much higher speeds and capacity. If Europe wants to become a global leader in mobile and telecoms we need to set world leading targets and we need to deliver on these ambitions”, underlined Hökmark.
”The recently adopted spectrum program is one important remedy to address this challenge and will play a crucial part in Europe’s efforts to deploy superfast broadband. More frequencies and more capacity means higher speeds and more growth”, said Hökmark.
”Increased competition and deregulation is the best way to stimulate investments and roll out of fixed high speed broadband. If the EU is to secure its global leadership we must start to deploy new fibre networks, instead of only relying on updating existing copper networks, concluded Hökmark.