BEREC prepares its Strategy for 2026-2030

BEREC is seeking stakeholders’ input to ensure that its strategic priorities reflect real-world needs and evolving market trends. At BEREC’s public debriefing on 11 June 2025, BEREC Chair Robert Mourik (ComReg, Ireland) encouraged stakeholders to contribute to the drafting of the BEREC Strategy 2026-2030. He was joined at the public debriefing by BEREC Working Group Co-Chairs, who presented documents adopted during the latest plenary meeting and replied to stakeholders’ questions.

BEREC Strategy 2026-2030 will consolidate all strategic documents

The draft strategy for the period from 2026 to 2030 outlines how BEREC should organise and prioritise its efforts to achieve specific goals. It reviews and consolidates the three previous strategies, as well as the Action Plan for 2030. The draft document defines BEREC’s objectives by considering the latest market, technological and regulatory developments expected over the next five years. The deadline for making a submission as part of the public consultation is 15 July 2025.

Public consultation on GIA Guidelines

The co-legislators adopted the Gigabit Infrastructure Act (GIA) on 11 May 2024 with the aim to reduce costs and delays of very high capacity network deployments. BEREC has been tasked with establishing two sets of guidelines to specify how some of its obligations should be performed.

The first set of draft guidelines considers the provisions of Article 11, which provides electronic network operators with a right to access in-building physical infrastructure, with the joint goals of faster and more cost-effective network rollouts and recognising the advantages for building owners of having such services available. BEREC has launched a public consultation on these draft guidelines and calls for feedback and contributions from stakeholders by 11 July 2025.

BEREC experts have also developed another set of draft guidelines on the coordination of civil works (Article 5 of GIA). The draft guidelines provide guidance on three main topics - the apportioning of costs associated with the coordination of civil works; criteria that the dispute settlement body (DSB) should follow when settling disputes; and criteria for ensuring sufficient capacity to accommodate foreseeable and reasonable future needs if a coordination request was refused. The public consultation on the draft Guidelines will run until 11 July 2025.

Economic regulation of domestic submarine cables in Europe

Submarine cables are essential for Europe’s international connectivity and are pivotal in linking island regions and remote territories. This draft BEREC report sets out a detailed overview of domestic submarine cable networks across EU member states. For example, 15 coastal EU countries operate segments of domestic submarine cables, among which around 12% form part of international cable systems.

The draft report reveals that nearly one-third of these cable systems are between 10 and 25 years old, while 14% have been in operation for over 35 years, indicating an urgent need for infrastructure renewal. Replacing these ageing systems requires substantial investment, particularly in sparsely populated coastal and remote areas. In addition, the draft report also examines the purposes behind cable deployment and the past and current ex ante regulatory framework with particular focus on economic regulation and remedies applied.

Over the years, domestic submarine cables have been regulated in six countries (Croatia, France, Greece, Iceland, Portugal and Spain), but two of them have deregulated it (France and Spain). The draft report also identifies key challenges and emerging trends that are likely to shape the sector’s future. The report contributes to mapping existing and planned submarine cable infrastructures, in line with the EU’s 2025 Action Plan on Cable Security and the 2024 Commission Recommendation on Secure and Resilient Submarine Cable Infrastructures. BEREC invites stakeholders to provide feedback on the draft report by 11 July 2025. In the second half of 2025, BEREC plans to organise workshops with other regulators’ networks, such as REGULATEL and EMERG.

Copper switch-off progress in EU

At the recent BEREC plenary meetings, the Board of Regulators adopted the progress report on the EU’s transition from copper to fibre networks. The findings show notable progress in the copper switch-off process compared to 2022. However, the pace and status of the migration vary widely across member states. The report highlights that the switch-off of copper networks by the Significant Market Power (SMP) operators remains a complex task. BEREC underscores the importance of managing this transition carefully to safeguard competition and uphold end-user rights. Ensuring adequate notice periods, providing clear and timely information to end users, and guaranteeing access to suitable alternative products at comparable prices throughout the migration process are key tasks of regulators overseeing the migration and switch-off process.

The report also includes a section on “lessons learned”, offering insights from a national standpoint. It identifies broad transparency and effective communication with all stakeholders as essential elements for a successful migration. In future, BEREC will continue to monitor and follow this topic closely in order to maintain competitive dynamics during the switch-off and migration processes.

Upcoming BEREC events

On 26 June 2025, BEREC’s Market and Economy Analysis Working Group will hold a workshop on the competitive effects of strategic fibre network deployment. BEREC aims to explore operators’ behaviour related to the deployment of multiple parallel fibre networks in any given area from a competition perspective. The workshop will be conducted in hybrid format, allowing for either physical attendance at the IRG premises in Brussels or remote participation. Physical places will primarily be reserved for workshop speakers and BEREC members.

For more information on upcoming BEREC events, visit our website and subscribe.

Public documents available online

A full list of the public documents adopted at BEREC’s 63rd ordinary meeting (held on 5-6 June 2025) is available on the BEREC website. The presentation and the video recording of the BEREC public debriefing will be available shortly. The 64th BEREC ordinary meeting will take place on 2-3 October 2025, in Bulgaria. The next BEREC public debriefing will be held on 8 October 2025 in Brussels, in person and online.

Note to Editor

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