Public Intervention in the Deployment of NGNs

The deployment of NGNs (Next Generation Networks) has led to a change for the public role in the telecommunications industry. Now the public support is seen as not only responsible for the regulatory framework where market forces thrive, but as the leading force behind infrastructure deployment and innovative boosting measures. This section reviews the ways in which involvement of public administrations in the deployment of NGNs is happening. Subsequently, it focuses on the analysis of the European case and particularly on the Guidelines for the application of State aid rules in relation to rapid deployment of broadband networks that the European Commission published on Sept. 2009.