• Il report sintetizza i dati forniti al BEREC dalle autorità nazionali di regolazione, relativi all’impatto della crisi legata alla pandemia di Covid-19 sul traffico internet e sulle azioni messe in campo; a partire dall’8 maggio il report include anche una panoramica di ulteriori misure pertinenti che le autorità nazionali di regolamentazione, le istituzioni pubbliche e gli attori del mercato stanno adottando per affrontare la crisi COVID-19, come le campagne di informazione e la sospensione/posticipazione di alcune procedure di gara in programma o in corso.

In a joint statement with the European Commission, on 19 March 2020, on how network operators can cope with the increased demand of network capacity, BEREC committed to a special reporting mechanism to ensure regular monitoring of the Internet traffic situation in each Member State, in order to be able to respond swiftly to capacity issues. Furthermore, BEREC is collecting information on other measures implemented by National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) as well as on other initiatives by public and private parties throughout Europe. This report focuses on, and summarises, the main updates of an ongoing, weekly information gathering exercise, and includes the most recent data provided to BEREC by its constituent NRAs as of 26 May 2020. 32[1] NRAs shared their data about the impact of the crisis on electronic communications networks and the actions taken so far in their respective Member States. Please refer to the previous iterations of this summary report[2] for further details on some of the early measures applied by NRAs during the crisis. The summary report will continue to be updated based on regular input from NRAs, with the next summary report due to be published on 26 June 2020.

1. Status of internet capacity

In general, traffic on fixed and mobile networks increased during the Covid-19 crisis, but no major congestion issues occurred.

7 NRA5 NRAs[3] have provided updates on the status of internet capacity in their Member State since the previous information gathering exercise (9 June 2020). Please refer to previous iterations of the internet capacity summary report for further details on some of the early measures applied by NRAs during the crisis.

Key updates since previous report

• BG, CY, IT, ME, NL, PL and RO have provided updates on the evolution of internet traffic on fixed and mobile networks
• BG and ME have discontinued the exceptional collecting of data from operators

1.1 Network issues raised by NRAs

In general, three phases in the evolution of internet traffic have been observed during the crisis: sharp increase, stabilisation and a decrease from the peak. The following updates on the status of internet traffic have been reported: BG, NL, PL and RO have reported on an overall internet traffic stabilisation. NL has also recorded slightly lower traffic levels at the internet exchange compared to April-May 2020. IT has reported that volumes of traffic are substantially reducing, especially on fixed networks, since the end of the general lockdown on 4 May 2020. ME has reported that overall internet traffic is back to normal since the end of the emergency state on 2 June 2020. After a slight decrease of data traffic for more than three weeks in a row, CY has registered an increase in data traffic in both fixed and mobile networks during the week of 1-6 June 2020 compared to the week of 25-31 May 2020.

1.2 Regulatory actions taken

NRAs are monitoring the situation and are collecting data from ISPs and other market players about the status of their networks. In BG, the weekly reporting on traffic by operators has been suspended but operators are requested to provide information in case of significant change in data traffic usage in any network. Similarly, ME has cancelled the exceptional weekly data gathering. Additionally, ME returns to their regular monthly reports. No NRA has applied (or deemed necessary to apply) the exceptional traffic management measures contained in the Regulation (EU) 2015/2120.

1.3 Actions taken and communication by operators

ME has mentioned that operators withdrew all benefits for customers, which were available during the state of emergency related to the COVID-19 outbreak. NL has explicitly mentioned that various continuous capacity expansions and traffic (re)balancing are taking place.

2. Other measures taken by NRAs, public institutions and market players

Key updates since previous report

• DE reported about the release of mobile application “Corona Warn App”
• FI reported on the spectrum auction of the 26 GHz band
• PL reported on the annulment of spectrum auction of 3400-3800 MHz band

2.1 Measures to monitor the spread of Covid-19

BEREC has asked NRAs if there are any tracing applications/solutions in place in their Member State in order to monitor the spread of Covid-19. Information provided earlier to BEREC is available in the previous iterations of this summary report. New information on the issue of tracing applications/solutions, as of 16 June, has been provided to BEREC by DE. DE released the app “Corona Warn App” on 16 June 2020. Only one day later there were already approx. 6.5 million downloads.

2.2. Measures relating to spectrum auctions

FI reported that spectrum auction of the 26 GHz band (25.1–27.5 GHz) was held on 8 June 2020. The auction generated EUR 21 million in revenue. The 26 GHz band can be used for the construction of 5G networks as of 1 July 2020. PL reported earlier (BoR 20 119) that the President of UKE opened proceeding for an annulment of auction for frequency reservations in the 3480-3800 MHz band. By issuing a first-instance decision of the President of UKE the auction has been annulled on 10 June 2020.

 

[1] The following NRAs have contributed so far to the information gathering exercises: AL, AT, BE, BG, CH, CY, CZ,

DE, DK, EE, EL, ES, FI, FR, HR, HU, IE, IT, LT, LU, LV, ME, MT, NL, NO, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SI, SK.

[2] 2 The previous iterations of the summary report can be found at:

https://berec.europa.eu/eng/document_register/search/?reference_number=&title=summary+report&contents=&

category_id=&date_from=&date_to=&search=1

[3] 3 NRAs from the following Member States having provided updates since the previous data gathering exercise:

BG, CY, IT, ME, NL, PL, RO.