All that’s copper will be fibre?
Source: Euractiv
Portugal, Spain and Sweden are leading Europe’s transition to fibre networks, while Greece, Germany and Czechia are trailing behind, new data released on Tuesday revealed.
The data, released by fibre lobby FTTH Council Europe, stems from an independent report by Cullen International and shows which EU countries are the most advanced in deploying high-speed connectivity.
By analysing the European Commission’s 2024 national reports, alongside Cullen International’s findings, Euractiv ranked EU countries in their progress toward transitioning from copper to fibre networks.
Portugal, Sweden, Spain, Bulgaria and Lithuania are the five EU countries leading the race in high-speed connectivity. Over 75% of the largest fixed operators, rely on fibre, with fibre being available in buildings in more than three-quarters of instances.
Croatia, Belgium, Italy, Czechia, Germany and Greece are lagging behind in terms of copper phase-out to the benefit of fibre. More than 75% percent of the largest fixed operator’s networks still rely on copper, even though fibre is available in buildings in 25% to 62% of cases.
This is partly due to historical infrastructure, technological considerations and diverse implementation of the regulatory framework of the European Electronic Communications Code. For example, as opposed to direclty switching to fibre Belgium decided to rely on its installed network of copper or aluminum cables primarily used to deliver cable TV services, coaxial cable technology (DOCSIS3.1), and Germany chose to enhance its copper networks through vectoring technologies (VDSL2).
Although coaxial cable and vectoring technologies offer both better internet speeds than legacy copper, they are still less effective than fibre. Moreover, DOCSIS3.1 technology is limited when many users connect, and VDSL2 drops in performance the farer the user connects from the source.
Larger debate
The decommissioning of copper networks has a profound impact on end-users and market competition, while also carrying considerable political significance.
The Commission considers that the EU is far from achieving its connectivy targets as only 64% of households were connected to fibre networks (FTTP) at the end of 2023.
The EU executive proposed establishing a firm deadline to fully decommission copper networks by 2030, in a February 2024 white paper.
But the lobby of largest telecom operators Connect Europe wrote in a document sent to the Commission that it did not believe in fixed deadline or forced copper switch-off.
It is the lack of adequate return on investment that has hindered telecom operators from investing in the rollout of fiber networks, Connect Europe’s deputy director General Maarit Palovirta told Euractiv.
Connect Europe has been at the forefront of advocating for moving away from the strict regulations outlined in the EECC to foster a more favorable investment climate.
But the telecoms lobby organisation of the European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA), in contradiction with Connect Europe, favours a swift transition away from copper networks.
Moreover, ECTA emphasises that existing operators delay the decommissioning of copper networks when they refuse to switch their legacy copper systems to fiber networks provided by other companies.
Requiring incumbent operators to switch to a fiber network built by another operator would discourage future investment from former, Connect Europe wrote in June.
The telecoms lobby GSMA did not wish to answer Euractiv’s request for comments.
Siding with ECTA, the FTTH Council Europe wrote that “the Commission needs to fix the basic rules about on how [the copper switch-off] process will occur, in order to avoid that the process may be manipulated to transfer market power from copper to fibre networks,” in a June document.
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