Digital Divide and Policy Issues for NRENs in South East Europe

1. Digital Divide and Policy Issues for NRENs in South East Europe Valentino CavalliTERENA SEEREN Inauguration, Thessaloniki, 09/01/2004

2. About this talk • General findings about the digital divide in Europe • Based on the NREN Compendium and the SERENATE project • Conclusions and recommendations about SEE • Based on the VARNA workshop SEEREN Inauguration, Thessaloniki, 09/01/2004

3. Background • NREN Compendium (COM-REN) • Administrative data and legal form, number of users and market share, internal and external connectivity, and capacity of links, network traffic, load and congestion indicators, services, staffing and funding • http://www.terena.nl/compendium • SERENATE • Strategic study into the evolution of European research and education networking • Technical, commercial and political evolution • Formulate recommendations of general applicability • D16: Study on the digital divide in European research and education networking • http://www.serenate.org SEEREN Inauguration, Thessaloniki, 09/01/2004

4. Divide in network capacity • Three groups of countries: • A. European Economic Area (EU15 + IS, NO, CH) • B. EU Accessing Countries May 2004 • C. EU neighbours in SEE (AL, BH, BG, HR, MK, RO, YU, TR) • National backbone and total international capacity: B 5 times smaller than A, C 25 times smaller than B • High prices of connectivity, lack of funding and government support perceived as the major inhibitors • Serious issue of RESEARCH EXCLUSION SEEREN Inauguration, Thessaloniki, 09/01/2004

5. Access to infrastructure • High pricing of telecommunication links due to lack of competition and persisting dominance of (ex-) monopoly telecommunications operators • Very similar to the situation which existed in the countries of the European Union ten years ago, and the measures which need to be taken are the same • The process of effective liberalisation of the market for electronic communications should be implemented effectively and rapidly SEEREN Inauguration, Thessaloniki, 09/01/2004

6. SERENATE conclusions • Recommendations to EU institutions and governments of countries affected by the digital divide: • Recognise that a digital divide exist and take energetic measures to reduce and eliminate it • Monitor annually the state of the digital divide (including availability of Gigabit communication services, functionality and performance of services offered by the NRENs) and publish the results • Encourage the use of structural funds in the field of R&E including investment in communication infrastructure, such as optical fibre SEEREN Inauguration, Thessaloniki, 09/01/2004

7. The VARNA workshop • Policy Issues for NRENs in South East Europe, Varna, 7-9 Sept 2003 • Organised by CEENet, TERENA, SEEREN, ICT Development Agency of Bulgaria, with support from the NATO Science Programme • Participants from governments, universities, scientific institutions, networking organisations, telecom operators, the European Commission and the NATO Computer Networking Panel • http://www.terena.nl/conferences/nato-anw2003 SEEREN Inauguration, Thessaloniki, 09/01/2004

8. SEE countries situation • Awareness of NRENs importance, not clear political will • Similar interest needs and driving forces towards IS but also some common issues: • lack of awareness at decision-making level • Fragmentation among different national actors • Shortage of resources • High cost of connectivity / PNO monopoly • Misguided competition with commercial ISPs • Different infrastructures, network capacity, legal and regulatory frameworks, R&E structure SEEREN Inauguration, Thessaloniki, 09/01/2004

9. Conclusions • Steering group working on a set of specific recommendations addressing measures to reduce the digital divide in the SEE region: • Advance the Information Society • Leading role of NRENs • Interest of governments on NRENs • Scope of NRENs • Access to infrastructure SEEREN Inauguration, Thessaloniki, 09/01/2004

10. Advance the Information Society • Speed and quality of Information Society development critical for the future of Europe economic prosperity • The academic community is a key driver for the Information Society SEEREN Inauguration, Thessaloniki, 09/01/2004

11. Leading role of NRENs • The academic community cannot rely on sole market forces: requires a strong, stable, not-for-profit organisation providing leading edge networking services • The NREN is such an organisation SEEREN Inauguration, Thessaloniki, 09/01/2004

12. Scope of NREN’s activity • NRENs and commercial ISPs complementary, not competing. NRENs provide advanced services to well-defined communities. Over time fed back to standard ISP’s offer to general public • Serving research centres, universities and higher institutions as well as other education segments, libraries, hospitals very important, particularly in smaller countries SEEREN Inauguration, Thessaloniki, 09/01/2004

13. Government support to NRENs • R&E networking is a priority if you want to speed up the development of Information Society • One NREN per country in charge of all R&E needs, stable organisation and staff, legally funded, sufficient funding, initially fully financed from government budget SEEREN Inauguration, Thessaloniki, 09/01/2004

14. Government support in access to infrastructure • Governments should: • Ensure that sufficient financial resources are available • Exert influence on PNOs to provide services needed by NRENs at cost-related prices • Enable NRENs ownership of infrastructure SEEREN Inauguration, Thessaloniki, 09/01/2004

15. www.terena.nl/conferences/nato-anw2003/ Thank you SEEREN Inauguration, Thessaloniki, 09/01/2004