High-Speed Broadband Roundtable
When and How PPPs are an option for deploying super-fast internet access?
To answer this question EPEC organized a roundtable event in Rome on the 15th of February. The roundtable was targeted at public sector authorities. The roundtable has benefited from insights from EIB and European Commission staff involved in High Speed Broadband (or Next Generation Accesss), as well as some industry experts involved in NGA deployment. The aim of this exercise was to identify issues of key interest to the financing and role out of High Speed Broadband and to discuss the issues which require further analysis.
The key topics to be presented/discussed included:
By industry representative:
Overview of current situation/developments and brief country analysis of NGA investment levels;
Case studies of NGA development via PPPs both in pioneering transactions and rural areas.
By members:
The role of the government: when a PPP is the right option and the benefits it can provide;
An overview of business models used by PPPs developing NGA networks:how PPPs can manage, demand, financial, regulatory and technology risks;
Successful measures for reducing investment cost and aggregating demand.
By EC colleagues:
An overview of future regulatory developments;
The use of EU funds to finance NGA networks.
By regulatory authorities:
Tailoring regulatory frameworks to specific market failures;
When open-access is a problem to private sector investment and how to solve it.
By IFIs and other promotional banks:
Understanding the best financial structure for developing NGA network;
An overview of public support measures and their effectiveness in credit enhancement.
