aconium at the FTTH Conference 2016

On February 16, 2016, aconium GmbH hosted the Governmental Day Workshop for the second time, which took place as part of the FTTH conference in Luxembourg. With this event, aconium has successfully established a platform on which political decision-makers, public officials and representatives of regional and local authorities in the EU member states can discuss current developments in broadband expansion. In the first block, Anna Krzyzanowska, Head of Broadband Department, and Dr. Robert Henkel, Senior Policy Officer of the European Commission’s Directorate General CONNECT, spoke about policy measures for broadband development and the main funding programs as well as Broadband Europe as the most important online platform for broadband development in the EU. The necessity of superfast internet for the vitality, security and future of European cities was emphasized by Filip Meuris, Head of Department of Intercommunale Leiedal, Belgium. In a panel discussion, the winners of the first European Broadband Award shared their experiences with the workshop participants. Representatives of the projects RAIN II (Lithuania), CAI Harderwijk open networks (Netherlands), guifi.net (Spain) and Stokab (Sweden) presented innovative, regionally adapted approaches to broadband expansion. The second part dealt with the topic of cost reduction in practice. The basis for the discussion was the EU Commission’sCost Reduction Directive, which is to be transposed into national law in the individual member states by January 1, 2016. The aim is to reduce the costs of broadband expansion through redistribution at national level as well as various technical solutions and synergy effects in the use of existing infrastructures. In two working groups, the participants worked out the main bottlenecks and challenges of cost reduction. Tim Brauckmüller, Managing Partner of aconium GmbH, concluded the Governmental Day with a presentation on the crucial role of local and regional decision-makers in the process of broadband development and emphasized the relevance of networking opportunities among the stakeholders involved in broadband expansion. In the main part of the FTTH conference program, Tim Brauckmüller spoke in “Broadband in Europe – Status quo, strategies and challenges in practice” about the status quo of FTTH in Europe, highlighting where progress can be seen and where FTTH rollout can be optimized to fall short of expectations.