Making High Speed Broadband Available to Everyone in Finland

Transcription

1 Making High Speed Broadband Available to Everyone in Finland Juha Parantainen Ministry of Transport and Communications, Finland 1

2 Broadband operators in Finland 2

3 Goals for Broadband Deployment set by the Government on 4 December Mbit/s by 2010 By the end of 2010 every permanent residence must have a reasonably priced access to a fixed or wireless subscriber connection with an average downstream rate of at least 1 Mbit/s. The rate of 1 Mbit/s will be defined as a universal service (no public funding used). The service provider may decide the technology it will use. Reasonable price for everyone. 100 Mbit/s by 2015 By the end of 2015 nearly all permanent residences shall be within two kilometres reach of an optical fibre or cable network permitting 100 Mbit/s connections. Consumers will acquire their subscriber connection at their own expense. In built-up areas telecom operators will build high-speed connections on market terms. This will achieve a population coverage of around 95%. Extending the coverage to 99% will require that partly subsidised high-speed connections will be built to around 120,000 households in rural areas. Public aid two thirds will be provided by the state, municipalities and the EU. The costs of the project will amount to about 200 million euros, of which telecom operators will pay at least one third. Implementation in

4 Reasons for a new direction in communications policy The guiding principle so far has been that telecom operators are responsible for supplying comprehensive and reasonably priced communications services on market terms. In future such measures as more specific licence terms for telecom operators, and public aid for the construction of communication connections will also be available. Some reasons for the policy change: Proper communication links are no longer luxury products but necessary tools in day-to-day life. Without adequate communications connections citizens cannot access information society services. In terms of broadband Finland is fairly well covered, but international comparisons show that the number of high-speed connections is lower than in other countries. Some telecom operators also have plans of cutting back services in the fixed telecommunications network across non-built-up areas. 4

5 EU broadband penetration rate (EU Commission, July 2008, fixed connections) Denmark Netherlands Sweden Finland United Luxembourg Belgium Germany France Estonia EU27 Austria Malta Spain Ireland Slovenia Italy Latvia Lithuania Cyprus Czech Portugal Hungary Greece Romania Poland Slovakia Bulgaria Percentage of population with access to broadband

6 Connections 10 Mbit/s or faster (EU Commission, July 2008) Denmark Sweden Finland UK Belgium Germany Estonia Ireland Latvia Percentage of broadband connections 10 Mbit/s or faster 6

7 Demand and supply of broadband connections in Finland Households % 100 % 80 % ~98 % ~95 % ~85 % 60 % 40 % ~60 % ~45 % ~35 % 20 % 0 % 1Mbit/s 2Mbit/s 8Mbit/s 24Mbit/s 40Mbit/s 100Mbit/s 7 An estimate of the broadband supply and demand on 1 January 2009

8 Why are high-speed optical fibre connections needed in rural areas? The high-speed connections will be used for decades. Optical fibre is the only solution currently available that can, at a reasonable cost, be upgraded to meet the future needs. Information society services are at least as important in rural areas as in cities (telework, remote health care etc). Optical fibre connections will balance the regional differences in the supply of communication services. In major cities the current household price for a 100 Mbit/s subscriber connection is the same as for a 1 Mbit/s connection in non-built-up areas. In future, faster and more symmetrical connections will be needed upstream rates need to be high as well. A rate of 100 Mbit/s will provide better opportunities for telework and development of social networking services. The spread of high-speed broadband networks will promote competition in the distribution of television programmes. 8

9 Costs of extending high-speed broadband to rural areas Total costs some 200 million euros State subsidies 66 million euros in (total) Public aid no more than 2/3 EU funding is used to decrease the financing share of municipalities Only projects not viable on market terms are eligible for public aid Shares of stakeholders State max. 1/3 EU and municipalities max. 1/3, in total Telecommunications operators at least 1/3 9

10 Projects eligible for public aid (the last 5% of the population) RURAL AREA ( the last 5% population coverage ) BUILT-UP AREA COMMERCIAL EXTENSION AREA Optical fibre projects eligible for public financing 10

11 The parts of the project eligible for public aid BUILT-UP AREA RURAL AREA Closest point-of-presence Household Existing network Commercial extension area Part of the optical fibre project eligible for subsidies Max. 2 kilometres (subscriber connection) 11

12 Next steps Preparatory work: - Determination of the subsidised area (last 5% population coverage) - Principles for public tendering Principles for public aid administration - Possibly pilot projects Spring autumn Call for tenders Spring Implementation of the first optical fibre projects Summer

13 Some topical issues Should there be open access if public funds are used? Who should own the publicly subsidised network? How to ensure continuation of service provision in the coming years if an operator owns the subsidised network? Could a cooperative society or a municipality set up a fibre project (instead of a traditional telecom operator)? How to make sure that there is a trunk network operator willing to provide a connection to the subsidised network? How to ensure that fibre networks to be implemented meet the technical standards (this is relevant mainly with networks implemented by cooperative societies)? How to ensure sufficient competition in all areas and how to make sure that customers will be provided with the service at a reasonable price? 13

14 High-speed broadband connections create jobs in rural areas Effects on Employment High-speed broadband connections available to everyone Network Effect Construction (about 3,000 person-years) Employment in rural areas improves thanks to better connections to the rest of the world (about 500-1,000 permanent jobs) Maintenance