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067897/EU XXVI.GP Eingelangt am 11/06/19 Council of the European Union Brussels, 11 June 2019 (OR. en) 10211/19 ADD 4 TELECOM 259 MI 514 IND 193 COMPET 485 PI 98 RECH 325 DIGIT 113 CYBER 203 COVER NOTE From: Secretary-General of the European Commission, signed by Mr Jordi AYET PUIGARNAU, Director date of receipt: 11 June 2019 To: Mr Jeppe TRANHOLM-MIKKELSEN, Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union No. Cion doc.: SWD(2019) 206 final (PART 5/6) Subject: COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) 2019 Delegations will find attached document SWD(2019) 206 final (PART 5/6). Encl.: SWD(2019) 206 final (PART 5/6) 10211/19 ADD 4 KM/ek TREE.2.B EN www.parlament.gv.at EUROPEAN COMMISSION Brussels, 11.6.2019 SWD(2019) 206 final PART 5/6 COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) 2019 EN EN www.parlament.gv.at Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) 2019 Telecom Country Reports Part I 1 www.parlament.gv.at Belgium Belgium EU DESI 2017 DESI 2018 DESI 2019 DESI 2019 value value value rank Value 1a1 Fixed broadband coverage >99.5% >99.5% >99.5% 7 97% % households 2016 2017 2018 2018 1a2 Fixed broadband take-up 80% 81% NA1 77% % households 2016 2017 2018 2018 1b1 4G coverage 95% 97% >99.5% 2 94% % households (average of operators) 2016 2017 2018 2018 1b2 Mobile broadband take-up 68 72 76 24 96 Subscriptions per 100 people 2016 2017 2018 2018 1b3 5G readiness NA NA 0% 13 14% Assigned spectrum as a % of total harmonised 5G spectrum 2018 2018 1c1 Fast broadband (NGA) coverage 98% 98% 99% 3 83% % households 2016 2017 2018 2018 1c2 Fast broadband take-up 65% 67% 67% 3 41% % households 2016 2017 2018 2018 1d1 Ultrafast broadband coverage NA 92% 96% 3 60% % households 2017 2018 2018 1d2 Ultrafast broadband take-up 30% 42% 40% 5 20% % households 2016 2017 2018 2017 1e1 Broadband price index 84 82 83 19 87 Score (0 to 100) 2016 2017 2018 2017 1. Progress towards a gigabit society According to the Plan for ultrafast internet in Belgium, by 2020 all Belgian households should have internet access with speeds of at least 30 Mbps, via a mix of technologies. However, Belgium wants to go further than the European connectivity targets and also provide, by the same deadline, half of the country with connections that allow speeds of up to 1 Gbps. Indeed, the first commercial offers in Belgium at 1 Gbps are expected to be launched in the course of 2019. Belgium has universal broadband coverage and the indicators for fixed broadband and NGA coverage have remained stable compared to the previous year. Ultrafast broadband coverage increased by a further 4 percentage points and reached a good 96 % of households, and 4G coverage increased by 3 percentage points to reach almost 100 % of households, bringing the country to third place as regards ultrafast broadband coverage and to second place as regards 4G coverage among its peers. However, FTTP coverage in Belgium clearly lags behind the EU trends. Most investments in Belgium are market-driven, with national and EU funding playing only a minor role. In order to achieve universal NGA coverage by 2020, a white areas action plan was launched in 2016. This plan identified 39 municipalities in which at least 40 % of the population does not have access to connection speeds of 30 Mbps and where there is no full 4G coverage. Since then, thanks to stimulations of investment in these areas, operators have already invested more than €32 million in improving their coverage, and in 2018 only 16 municipalities remained in white zone. 1 The data is under revision by the Belgium authorities. 2 www.parlament.gv.at Fluvius is a new utility company in Flanders, created by the merger of Eandis and Infrax in July 2018. It operates the distribution networks for gas, electricity, sewerage, cable distribution and heat. The utility intends to launch a fibre to the home (FTTH) network in Flanders as a wholesale-only operator. In 2019, a pilot project will start in five Flemish cities, with the aim of connecting 15,000 households. Fluvius’ intention is to build the passive network, i.e. the ducts and dark fibre, and telecommunications operators will then connect their infrastructure and services to the network. For this project in the five pilot cities, Fluvius will collaborate with Orange with its role being to contribute the active components and the commercial rollout. The network will also be open to other interested players on a wholesale basis. roximus’ €3 billion FTTH investment plan (‘Fibre for Belgium’) for 2017-2027 is to cover the centres of cities and communes, through deployment both on the façade of buildings and in certain sections in underground ducts. Its plan is moving ahead, with fibre being rolled out in several cities since the beginning of 2017. Telenet’s €500 million ‘Grote Netwerf’ investment programme, which aims at enabling download speeds of at least 1 Gbps, is expected to be complete by mid-2019. At the end of 2018, almost all of the nodes in Telenet’s HFC (hybrid fibre-coaxial) network had already been upgraded. On 10 September 2018, the Belgian Institute for Postal services and Telecommunications (BIPT) adopted a Communication regarding the introduction of 5G in Belgium. The Communication mentions that the 5G pioneer bands will be assigned in autumn 2019 (with the exception of the 26 GHz band, which is scheduled for 2021). However, this timing is likely to be delayed due to disagreements on the division of the proceeds. Orange announced in December 2018 that they would be the first operator to introduce 5G in Brussels. All operators are indeed looking into 5G use cases and a 5G network launched by Ericsson is active in a technology park in Hasselt, serving as a test environment for companies and researchers. However, the upcoming spectrum auction is a prerequisite for the timely launch of 5G. 3 www.parlament.gv.at For the purpose of enabling the launch of 5G in the Brussels Capital region, a political agreement was reached in October 2018 to raise the electromagnetic field exposure limits from 6 to 14.5 V/m. The text was expected to be voted on by the government of Brussels in early 2019. The implementation of the European Electronic Communications Code started. BIPT is preparing a draft law amending the current Electronic Communications Act. This draft is expected by summer 2019. 2. Market developments Competitive environment The Belgian telecommunications market is a strongly consolidated one, with the incumbent and the cable operators dominating the fixed market. In any part of the country, the combined market share of Proximus and of the regional cable operator is higher than 95 %. All big players offer bundled services, which are indeed an important driver of competition on the Belgian market. According to a BIPT survey, 93 % of the population uses the internet from a fixed line at home and 67 % uses the mobile internet2. The increasing use of mobile internet does not seem to be at the expense of fixed line use since the multiplay offers with both mobile and fixed broadband internet are still experiencing increasing success. The demand for bundles grew by 4.3 %. Quadruple play was the strongest riser, confirming the trend towards fixed-mobile convergence. However, triple play3 remains the biggest bundle, which counts for 53 % of the total residential bundle volume. Mobile is present in 42 % of bundles, and 95 % of bundles include TV. Another factor which could help increase bundle use is ‘easy switch’. This has been in place since 1 July 2017 and introduces a number of measures aimed at facilitating an operator switch. Orange strengthened its position as a converged operator and increased its market share by 2 % in the residential market. By end 2018, it had expanded its ‘LOVE’ convergence customer base (internet + TV + mobile) to 180,000 customers. roximus’s VDSL2 coverage reached 95 % of the Belgian population, with a vectoring coverage of 88 %. VOO launched offers with speeds of 400 Mbps in December 2018. The business market is still dominated by the incumbent, which has ¾ of the market in this segment, although Telenet succeeded in increasing its share slightly. 2.1. Fixed markets The number of fixed broadband lines grew in 2017, mainly driven by cable. With a market share of 46 % of fixed broadband subscriptions, the Belgian incumbent is the 10th strongest incumbent in the EU. Proximus and Telenet together dominate the market with a cumulative share of 85.1 %. Telenet consolidated its position following the acquisition of SFR Belgium, while Proximus saw a slight increase in its market share. Orange continues to grow but remains a small player compared to the other two.The Belgian broadband market is dominated by access via cable, followed by DSL with only a very minor share of FTTH/B. Belgium scores very well in terms of fast (3rd place) and ultrafast (5th place) broadband take-up. The operators are constantly increasing the speed in their offers. Telenet is continuing to upgrade its coaxial cable network to offer 1 Gbps data rates by 2019. More than 200 municipalities are already eligible. The operator VOO announced the launch of the first commercial offers at 400 Mbps for December 2018 in Brussels and Wallonia. 2 BIPT, Inquiry about users’ perception of the Belgian electronic communications market, 2018. 3 Broadband, television and fixed telephony. 4 www.parlament.gv.at In terms of prices, Belgium scores relatively low in the broadband price index4, and stabilises at the 19th place, 4 points below the EU average.