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Strategic GAPS in the european digital agenda 2020: investment in innovation as a challenge

Document Citas 2 Citado por Relacionados
AutorLucia Pinar García/Nuria Chaparro-Banegas
Cargo del AutorUniversity of Valencia, Spain
Páginas1058-1076
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CAPÍTULO 49
STRATEGIC GAPS IN THE EUROPEAN
DIGITAL AGENDA 2020: INVESTMENT IN
INNOVATION AS A CHALLENGE
LUCIA PINAR GARCÍA
NURIA CHAPARRO-BANEGAS
University of Valencia, Spain
ABSTRACT
Net Neutrality has been the most relevant Internet regulatory policy of the last dec-
ade. Simultaneously, the European Union has carried out political and financial
measures to achieve the strategic objectives of the 2020 Agenda and the “GigaBit
Society 2025”, both oriented to strengthen the European digital economy. Despite
the controversial debate around it, this change in the agenda keeps the European
political regulations on net neutrality intact. In this paper, it is presented a systemat-
ic review of the most relevant theoretical, empirical, and experimental economic
results regarding the relationship between the net neutrality and the (dis)incentives
of network investment. The studies included are discussed in relation to two dynam-
ic efficiency economic criteria: investment and innovation efficiency. Gaps between
the empirical and theoretical framework are found, and more importantly, a perspec-
tive dilemma: investments measured in political agendas are focused on infrastruc-
ture investment figures and not on the technological innovation that concerns the
entire ecosystem. Therefore, is there a tradeoff between investment on infrastructure
and innovation or are these complementary concepts? This is the new assessment to
be adopted when approaching Internet regulation.
KEYWORDS
Agenda 2020, Net Neutrality, NGA nets, investment, innovation at the edge.
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INTRODUCTION
The EU’s digital economy is growing seven times faster than the rest
of economies, which represents a 12% per year. The European Infor-
mation and Communication Technology (ICT) sector employs 7 mil-
lion of people. It has been estimated that half of the productivity
growth in the European Union is due to investment in this sector.
However, the current fragmentation of the pan-European policy
framework is a potential problem on its development. Europe stays
behind other countries when considering fast, reliable and connected
digital networks which underpin economies and are available in our
professional and private lives.
In May 2010, the Digital Agenda for Europe was created to boost the
European economy exploiting sustainable social and economic benefits
of the Digital Single Market. Given the strategic nature of next-
generation networks in the economy, that is, ultrafast broadband net-
works, the European Commission established a new objective during
the last decade through which all Europeans will have access to speeds
higher than 30 Mbps and 50% more European households will have
access to ultrafast Internet −e.g., 100 Mbps. In this way, the European
Commission encouraged the expansion of the information superhigh-
ways through new regulatory and financial guidelines in order to help
in the completion of the single telecommunications market and unifi-
cation of the connectivity of the continent. The EU assigned a range
of policy and regulatory measures with the purpose of supporting the
aforementioned objectives. Moreover, they made €15 billion available
to Member States in the period 2014-2020 through several sources
and types of funding, including €5.6 billion in loans from the Europe-
an Investment Bank (EIB). This public funding complements the
main investment in the ICT sector coming from the large private tele-
phone operators. For his is the reason, the results of these investments
are at the center of the political debate on the digital economy, when
the time horizon has expired.
The overall broadband coverage has improved across countries in the
EU, but the Europe 2020 objectives have not been met. By mid-2017,

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