The European Commission made proposals this week on boosting the roll out of high-speed and "ultra-high" speed broadband that I think is relevant to Bermuda.

As The Royal Gazette revealed over the past few week, getting affordable high speed access to Bermuda is a hot issue, with providers, the Telecommunications Commission, and the minister responsible for the sector doing a dance around each other for 8 Mbps and 6 Mbps services.

Meanwhile the rest of the EU is talking about having 100 percent broadband coverage by 2013, increasing coverage bandwidth to 30 Mbps for all by 2020, with 50 percent or more of European households subscribing to Internet connections above 100 Mbps.

These high targets are set even though Europe has the highest average levels of broadband take-up worldwide.

However, only one percent of Europeans have a high-speed fibre Internet connection directly to their homes, compared to 12 percent of Japanese and 15 percent of South Koreans.

For the EU, the issue is preserving and growing the job market and keeping the bloc competitive globally.

Bermuda, I assume, has the same interests. The EU's commissioner for the digital agenda, Neelie Kroes, warned that a million jobs across Europe could be at stake if national authorities fail to take measures on high-speed broadband Internet and take-up.

"Fast broadband is digital oxygen, essential for Europe's prosperity and well-being," she said in presenting three policy proposals this week.

The first is a recommendation that requires national telecoms regulators to ensure an appropriate balance between the needs to encourage investment and to safeguard competition.

The second would establish a five-year policy to ensure that sufficient radio spectrum is made available for wireless broadband.

The third is a recommendation to member states on how best to increase private and public investment in broadband networks. All three proposals are running into opposition from the usual suspects and all for various political or commercial reasons rather than for the good of the economy or, whoa, even the consumer.

For example, every telecoms company that has laid line is up in arms about the first proposal which calls for EU countries to "apply the same principles when assessing the terms of access by competitors to the new broadband networks of powerful incumbents".

Incumbent operators warn that the proposal would give competitors easy access to their new fibre-based networks infrastructure and stifle further investment according to the European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association.

"We are not choosing investment incentives over competition, or vice versa. We are playing for both," said Kroes, arguing later on that "we cannot take the risk that this fundamental transition may lead to a re-monopolisation of telecom networks, losing the benefits that competition has brought so far".

The proposal on radio spectrum faces political and incumbent resistance, as it suggests using 800 MHz band currently used by broadcasters, which is being freed up by the switch to digital TV.

"In practice, however, the Commission's ultimatum can do little to change frequency allocation plans," says EurActiv.com, noting that Germany is the only EU country so far to make the broadcast spectrum available for mobile broadband.

The publication notes that Italy is a particular problem since Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi "built his political fortunes on the basis of his television empire, it is unlikely that broadband operators will stand a real chance of competing".

All bidders for the freed frequencies in Italy are at present exclusively broadcasters, not Internet service providers.

The third proposal suggests ways to encourage the 200 billion or so in private and public investments in fast and ultra-fast broadband networks.

This is more likely to occur, but when?

Such proposals, scaled down for a smaller population would also be digital oxygen for a small island out on the Atlantic.

The goals of some 15 years ago are still relevant, when Bermuda was caught up in the dotcom bubble and saw a way of catching a ride in the digital economy. While the dotcom boom was the right thing at the wrong time, the ideals and motives remain the same.

The scene has changed now, but the players, old and new, are playing the same game. I had written last week that I would continue that article with a look at some of the free and great video and audio editing suites available on the Internet. I will take that topic up next week.

I just thought this digital agenda proposal was relevant to the issues Bermuda is dealing with at the moment.

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