A senior EU official said on 9 April that the European Commission has no plans to include similar rules to those in its recent Gigabit Infrastructure Act (GIA) in the upcoming Digital Networks Act (DNA).
It remains unclear whether the issue of speculative land acquisition for mobile infrastructure is widespread across the EU or limited to specific member states, said Renate Nikolay, the Commission’s deputy director-general in charge of connectivity, at an event in Brussels on 9 April.
For this reason, the Commission is cautious about rushing into any decisions.
The issue is particularly contentious in France, where a new tower company entrant, Valocîme, has faced criticism for alleged speculative behaviour. This is viewed as harming both end-user coverage and the return on investment for incumbent tower companies.
The GIA – negotiated in 2023 and 2024 – “was a warm-up exercise” for the upcoming telecom legislative battle surrounding the DNA, Nikolay added.
However, this does not mean that the DNA, the first proposal for which is expected in December 2025, will address issues of land access, she stated.
“We are not redoing the GIA in the DNA,” she said, responding to a question from Euractiv about regulation on land access.
For now, the Commission plans to “look closely and assess” the current situation, Nikolay said.
Under the enforcement of the Gigabit Infrastructure Act (GIA), the Commission can decide to specify what “negotiations in good faith” on land access prices mean legally.
It is unlikely that the Commission will issue guidance on land access in 2025.
Instead, the EU executive is aiming to act – provided there is an identified market failure – by 2027 or 2028, Euractiv understands.
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