With the Lisbon Agenda the European Council has set ambitious goals for
2010, namely to make the Community the most dynamic knowledge-based
economy in the world. This goal clearly indicates that the Council, the
Commission and the European Parliament are fully aware of the high
economic, political and social relevance of information and communi-
tion technology, including modern digital services whose broad availab-
ity is desirable from the perspective of all major users groups: Firms,
private households and government agencies. The Commission indeed has
emphasized that the i2010 project is a major pillar of the policies with
a focus on the Lisbon Agenda: Creating faster broadband networks in the
EU and providing more diversified and more high-quality services at the
same time will indeed be crucial for the Union if the growth potential
of modern eCommunications is to be fully exploited. Naturally, the
telec- munications sector evolution has to be discussed in the context
of the overall expansion dynamics of the information and communication
te- nology (ICT) sector. At the same time the competition policy
framework will affect digital dynamics in OECD countries. In the EU the
interplay between supranational regulations and national regulations is
quite imp- tant for the development of the telecommunications sector.
This sector is subject to regulation for which the EU has created a
framework in 2003 which is up for review in 2006.
