Transeuropean Information Networks

SPRIN& 1994 EUR 15824 EN Transeuropean information networks ~irectorate-General for Industry <DG Ill> and Directorate-General for Telecommunications, nformation Market and Exploitation of Research <DG XIII> * * * * * * * * * * * * l&T MAGAZ NE SPRING 1994 (No.13) Testing time for Europe's Editorial note broadband future 1 From RACE to ACTS 10 The White Paper and information infrastructures Information highways worldwide From digital integration Challenges and strategies 14 to social integration 2 An enlightening look at policy development Information highways to where? Ten years of community Some telematics responses 24 telecommunications policy 6 l&T Magazine is available free of charge in five languages: English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. The text of the magazine is also accessible online, free of charge, on the database seiver ECHO (European Commission Host Organisation), using the public password ECHO (NUA : 0270448112). For a free subscription, please write with your Editorial Directors: Michel Carpentier and name and address, stating which language Riccardo Perrisich version and how many copies you require, to: Designed by Ludden Taylor Associates Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Printed in Belgium by Imprimerie Bietlot EUR-OP, Mailing list section MER 193/195, Printfilms produced by TMP sa Brussels 2, rue Mercier, L-2985 The opinions expressed in this publication do not Luxemburg necessarily reflect those of the Commission. Fax: ++352 40 75 85 Catalogue number CD-AK-94-001-EN-C Reproduction is authorised, but the CEC is not responsible for the use made of the information. Attribution would be appreciated. THE WHITE PAPER on growth, competitiveness and employment, intro duced on 5 December 1993 by the President of the European Commission, Jacques Delors, gives particular weight to the setting up of large European infrastructures ( energy, transport, telecommunications), both to develop European competitiveness and to "guide progress to serve the needs of employment and improve living conditions." At a meeting in Brussels on 10 and 11 December, the European Council asked for a report to be prepared for the next session on specific measures to be taken in this area. It requested that the report be drawn up by "a group of people fully representative of all industries involved in the Union, users and consumers." To this effect, two special groups were appointed by the Commission -..... "'-..... and the Council. They are the Christophersen Group for transport and energy networks and the Bangemann Group for communication networks. At the time of going to press, these two groups were preparing to finish their final report for the European Council meeting to take place on 24 and 25 June 1994 in Corfu. We do not wish to pre-empt their conclusions. But at a time when the debate on "electronic highways" is intensifying, a review of future infor mation infrastructures seemed appropriate, in the light of the White Paper and Community policy on telecommunications hence this special issue. • The White Paper and information infrastructures From digital integration to social integration Entering the 21st century miracle cures and reminds us that our Quite the contrary, since theoretically The European Commission's White efforts and policies will only succeed and historically, both the development Paper I analyses the state of the Union at the cost of a profound change in of international trade and technical in terms of growth, competitiveness and employment policy, which must be progress lie at the heart of economic employment. However, its true ambition repositioned in the overall strategy. expansion. is better expressed in the subtitle: Even when the economic climate has The disastrous situation in the jobs "challenges and paths for entering the been good, the Union has been unable market stems both from the contradic 21st century." This symbolic reference to obtain a satisfactory level of employ tion between the intensity of structural to the year 2000 is a direct expression ment. It is true that competitive relation adjustments demanded by competitive of the political desire to go beyond a ships have changed a great deal. Those and technical processes, and from the simple diagnosis and to propose countries which made a determined ability of economies to reallocate measures that will enable us to rise to entrance into international trade in physical and human resources quite the challenges which, taken together, the 1960s now hold extremely strong quickly in such as way as to exploit their are forcing us to look for a new model positions. In the past 10 years, we have new comparative advantages and thus of development. seen the widespread adoption of this to revive growth, competitiveness and The White Paper bases its approach economic development strategy based employment. on a few basic principles. First, it rejects on entry into international trade. The This contradiction is understandable. the temptation offered by regressive Japanese and Korean miracles can now Globalization, supported by the devel policies: we do not want protectionism, be seen in Asia and Latin America. opment of methods of communication the relentless inflationary pursuit of the Moreover, since the late 1970s, the and transport, is accelerating and ampli same policies, the widespread reduction former communist countries have been fying the pain of increased competition. of working time, or the alignment of looking to base their development on Furthermore, while in the past our wages and social protection with our international trade. economies underwent formidable competitors in developing countries. It To this must be added the change in structural changes, employment was then suggests positive strategies which competitive relations associated with clearly less of a separate issue than it aim at a sound, open, solidarity-minded, a series of technological revolutions, is today. Then, when it was still substan decentralized and competitive economy. the greatest of all being the micro tially linked to manual labour, people It is careful not to put forward any electronics revolution. could move easily from one sector of Nevertheless, these geopolitical and technological developments are not enough to explain all the difficulties. 2 l&T M A G A Z I N E activity to another. This is no longer the electronic revolution that serves human framework of the single market. In its case today, primarily as a result of the relationships necessarily lies, in its White Paper, the Commission suggested technological revolution. multimedia form, in remote communi to the heads of state and government The result of the creation and destruc cation systems. at the Brussels Council summit that tion of jobs is reflected, at the sectorial This double precondition has only the main development axis be the level, by either a scarcity or a glut of very recently been met by technology. production of these information infra labour, depending on the qualifications We can talk by telephone and send structures, continuing along the same being sought. Indeed, technical progress computing data and faxes, but only by lines laid out by Jacques Delors at the is having the effect of removing society's using different machines and, above all, Copenhagen summit. proletariat dimension although it is without seeing each other. Until a short having the counter-effect of increasing time ago, the limits of processors and Digital integration serving social the number of social outcasts and boost storage and transmission capacities integration ing the population of the Fourth World. were reached as soon as an image, even The world of multimedia, by adding a Even if technological innovation does a still image, was introduced into the new dimension relating to integration add fuel to the flames of competition digital universe. and interactivity, further strengthens and is accentuating short and medium Let us consider the example of a "remote" relationships. Letting our chil term problems on the jobs market, in a picture of one of the Lascaux cave paint dren use terminals to communicate with world where relationships are truly ings: digitized in 24-bit coded colour each other and access knowledge, possi worldwide such innovation is not vital with a definition of 500 x 500 pixels, it bly in direct contact with their teacher, to safeguard company competitiveness. requires 6,000,000 bits of storage capac and with the same pleasure with which However, a whole new logic for innova ity. To make the transition from a still to they today watch television or play tion is now materialising - one which a moving image with TV-picture quality, video games, would indeed be a great goes beyond the dogma of "productivity we need to display at least 25 images step forward. It is clear that electronic at all costs" and extends into the area of per second, which requires a transmis communication cannot and must not social adjustment. It is this logic that is sion capacity of 100 million bits per supersede direct contact, but it is there stressed for the first time in the White second. The traditional switched tele to facilitate and increase the frequency Paper and which constitutes its main phone network is clearly unable to cope of exchanges. development axis. with this kind of throughput. Overcoming distance also often Fortunately, a digital message can be means being able to overcome time From the Los Alamos laboratories to the compressed. The compression algo constraints. Following an adult training Lascaux caves rithms that exist today are already course using telematic applications is Initially, computers were massive calcu capable of reducing transmission rates one of the key ways in which we can lating machines for use by scientists. At by a factor of 20 or more. As for optical progressively improve the situation Los Alamos, for example, computers fibre, where it exists, it overcomes of people on the jobs market. The helped design and manufacture the first virtually all the barriers of transmission increased training and retraining possi atomic bomb.

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