The Danish Ministry of Energy, Utilities and Climate said the parliamentary parties have reached an agreement on telecommunications policy to promote good mobile and broadband coverage in Denmark and to ensure that the country is in the forefront of 5G developments. The 'Agreement on Top Class Broadband and Mobile – Future Telepolicy for All Denmark', outlines an overall policy and six concrete initiatives to support it.
The agreement covers municipal frameworks to support coverage, and what communcations providers should pay in rent when they erect mobile masts. The parties agreed to provide another DKK 60 million to subsidise broadband expansion in 2018, taking the total to DKK 100 million, with priority to be given to sparsely populated areas. However, it will chiefly be up to commercial operators to provide telecoms infrastructure.
The policy will support access to digital society for members of the public and enterprises alike. It sets out clear frameworks for municipal support for mobile and broadband infrastructure deployment, without affecting market competition in a detrimental fashion.
A new sector forum will be established to look at ways that any administrative barriers to 5G can be removed, at the creation of a 5G testing environment, and how these could contribute to national growth.
Telenor Denmark CEO Jesper Hansen welcomed the cross-party agreement, but said it falls short in terms of concrete goals and in ensuring competition on the broadband market. Hansen said he was glad for tthe commitments to lowering barriers to private investments, which will be sorely needed in the coming years as 5G and IoT become important. He hopes that the ’fine words’ and goals in the agreement will be converted into action to support the long-term, major investments.
Hansen added that considering the emphasis in the agreement on 5G, there is a remarkable lack of concrete and binding objectives to deal with applications and mast rental. He would like more detail of what the state will do and what exactly is being demanded of local councils.
The CEO added that the policy fails to adress the acute need to ensure much more effective competition in the brroadband market, especially for fast connections. He said fibre operators' networks are still largely closed, and TDC’s cable network remains unregulated. Hansen said customers could miss out if competition falls short, as local broadband monopolies will dicatate prices and terms if the authorities do not get involved.
Hansen said he will be joining the new forum mentioned in the policy.
TDC Group said it would have liked the policy to have set out direct goals for ensuring open and equal access to every telecommunications network in Denmark. Opening up closed netwoks would have benefit competition, said CEO Jens Aalose.
Even so, Aalose said the agreement provide reassurance and predictability as TDC plans its investments for the future, and he looks forward to concrete initiatives to fulfil the framework conditions. In particularly, he wants more precise details of municipal action, in order to remove uncertainty. Aalso was pleased that broadband subsidies will be targeted at more remote areas, where TDC consumer arm YouSee has a rural district initiatuive.
