HAKOM Market Day: Continued Investments by Telecom Operators and Growth in Total Revenue

The electronic communications market this year has been marked by a successful public auction for the radio frequency (RF) spectrum, which is important for the further development of 5G, deregulation of the optical market, and the continuation of significant investments by operators and growth in total revenue in the market, it was highlighted on Tuesday at the 10th HAKOM Market Day.

The annual gathering organized by the Croatian Regulatory Authority for Network Activities (HAKOM) brought together around 150 participants, representatives from telecoms, state institutions, academia, and others. The Chairman of the HAKOM Council, Tonko Obuljen, stated at the gathering that the past year has been “intense and exciting,” and that they expect similarly in the upcoming period.

He reminded that HAKOM has updated the cost model based on which it will determine fees for regulating wholesale services, and that since the adoption of the new telecommunications law last year, they have already issued 15 accompanying new or refreshed regulations, while working on another six, for which he thanked market stakeholders for their cooperation. They have also upgraded the e-permits application.

Obuljen emphasized that the number of user complaints and disputes has significantly decreased, deeming this good for both users and operators, hoping that this trend will continue as it leaves more time for necessary education.

– We are nearing the completion of network construction across Croatia funded by EU resources, but what concerns me is still the insufficient public awareness that networks are important for the overall development of both society and the economy, so from that perspective, we even have a court dispute involving one operator and a local government unit where this is being done with EU funds – said Obuljen without specifying who exactly is involved.

Importance of the Cybersecurity Law

For 2024, he announced HAKOM’s activities, including taking over the position of president of the European umbrella regulator BEREC, analyzing the quality of universal services, as well as HAKOM’s role within the upcoming expected new cybersecurity law, and taking on the role of national coordinator within the EU Digital Services Act.

– In the future cybersecurity law, HAKOM will have supervisory obligations over operators in the application of all rules, and these will also be expanded. This law has direct requirements for operators – Obuljen stated.

At the Market Day, several separate topics were discussed, such as connecting buildings to communication infrastructure. The idea is being considered that already at the technical inspection of a newly constructed building, it has connections for the telecommunications network, which partially depends on location permits and spatial plans that must foresee the construction of such physical infrastructure.

Increase User Migration to VHCN Networks, as ‘Copper’ Will Be Phased Out

It was indicated that greater migration of users to Very High Capacity Networks (VHCN) is needed, which, although accelerating, is still not enough, as the copper network will certainly be phased out at some point. Maintaining two parallel networks is quite costly, and it would be good to transition to new generation networks that are both ‘greener’ and more efficient as soon as possible.

Currently, about two-thirds of broadband internet users in Croatia still connect via copper pairs, and there are households that do not use the internet at all, mostly where older people live and in rural areas.

At the HAKOM Market Day, they also commented on the new European Commission report on the Digital Decade 2030 and the goals achieved so far, noting that Croatia has improved in some segments, for example, in the increase in the number of very high-speed connections, but it would be good to increase their usage as well.

The speed of construction and development of 5G networks is also satisfactory, in which Croatia is above the EU average, especially in rural parts of the country, which is deemed significant for the reach of broadband access in those areas and is partly an obligation of operators who purchased the RF spectrum. Where Croatia can certainly improve is in e-services, which can be more numerous and used digitally, with less paperwork, it was stated.