Andrew Pons

The Path to the EU’s Digital Decade

As we enter the third year of the EU’s Digital Decade, we remind ourselves of what the EU objectives are, where each member state stands to date in implementing the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC) legislation and what technology options are available to operators in the EU to achieve these ambitious targets.

European Union objectives

“It is really important that we make sure that everybody has the opportunity to be part of the digital society because, to a certain extent, it is the society into which we have moved,” states Rita Wezenbeek, Director of Connectivity within the Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology European Commission “Introducing the Path to the Digital Decade,” Shaping Europe’s Digital Future, November 23, 2021.

In the "2030 Digital Compass,” the European Commission has proposed setting up clear and ambitious targets for digital infrastructure.

The Digital Compass states that by 2030, all EU households should be covered by a Gigabit network, and all populated areas should be covered by 5G. The Digital Decade Policy Programme's proposal shows that societal needs for upload and download bandwidth are constantly growing. It states that by 2030, networks with Gigabit speeds should become available at accessible conditions for all those who need or wish to have such capacity.