What happened
The EU's planned overhaul of telecoms law, the Digital Networks Act (DNA), moved forward on two fronts this month. In the European Parliament, ITRE rapporteur Michał Kobosko (Renew) sent his draft report on Wednesday 21 October. Tagesspiegel Background, which has seen it, says the document runs to more than 300 pages.
In the Council, the Irish Presidency drew up a first partial compromise dated 16 October. According to Agence Europe, it covers the general framework, network resilience, the single European passport, telecoms services and end-user rights. The most contested areas, radio spectrum allocation and the voluntary cooperation mechanism between operators, are not yet included.
What the rapporteur proposes
As summarised by industry body Connect Europe and Tagesspiegel Background, the draft report would:
- support indefinite spectrum rights and a minimum of 50 years for time-limited licences, and favour coverage commitments over upfront spectrum fees;
- require "significant traffic providers" to negotiate interconnection with networks;
- extend some open-internet requirements to content and application providers and content delivery networks;
- remove the uniform EU-wide copper switch-off deadline but keep a mandatory copper migration regime;
- lower wholesale roaming caps further and remove explicit safeguards against permanent roaming;
- allow EU-level awards for parts of newly harmonised spectrum.
Connect Europe welcomed the spectrum and interconnection proposals but warned that the roaming changes could weaken incentives to invest in mobile networks.
Council text
The Presidency's compromise keeps the single passport for pan-European services but restructures it into a simpler notification mechanism. It also moves towards full harmonisation of consumer rights, with derogations allowing member states to keep their own rules on matters such as contract length and termination notice periods.
Next steps
Further Council and Parliament work is provisionally scheduled for November. The DNA would replace the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC) and the BEREC Regulation.
Why it matters financially
The DNA will set the terms for spectrum licences, wholesale access, roaming and copper retirement across the EU for years to come. Longer licences and lower upfront fees would change how operators fund spectrum. Interconnection talks with large traffic providers could create a new revenue stream for networks and a new cost for big content platforms. Lower roaming caps would cut wholesale income for operators that host roaming traffic. None of the sources reported cost estimates for the draft report.