Public consultation on Europe's Telecom Reality Check: Draft BEREC Fact finding report on connectivity, competition and regulatory highlights in different jurisdictions

Deadline to submit contributions: 8 May 2026, no extension will be granted.

During the 66th BEREC ordinary meetings (12-13 March 2026), the Board of Regulators adopted Europe's Telecom Reality Check: Draft BEREC Fact finding report on connectivity, competition and regulatory highlights in different jurisdictions (BoR (26) 36) for public consultation.

Background

In the context of significant market changes—marked by selective market exits and core market focus, accompanied by recent consolidation cases—alongside diverse regulatory models, technological advances and network deployments, the question of where the telecoms sector in the European Union stands in the global landscape emerges naturally.

Different comparisons with the USA, China and other strong economies in the world are put forward in this fact-finding report, especially at a moment when an overhaul of the specific regulatory framework is underway.

Aim

With the draft report, BEREC provides its view of where the EU stands in terms of connectivity, network quality, performance, and pricing compared to other jurisdictions. This fact-finding report is meant to provide an objective representation of several elements of the competitive context of telecommunications in Europe. It covers aspects such as the deployment of fixed and mobile fast broadband networks, the supply of services, financial performance of telecom operators, as well as regulatory approaches.

BEREC has researched, analysed and compared data from several countries, depending on their availability, cross-checking different sources and accounting for reliability and corresponding variance when possible. The geographical scope of the report includes the USA, Canada, Australia, China, South Korea, Japan, the UK, the EU-27, and, based on the reliability of the results, BEREC always reports on the comparison between the EU (as a whole), plus sometimes the top EU performers, the USA and an Asian country.

The main conclusions of the draft report:

• The EU telecom sector shows strong competitive dynamics, affordable prices, improving coverage and solid financial conditions, though performance varies among member states and operators. Sometimes these variances are considerable, but top EU performers typically score high in global rankings.
• The EU’s pro‑investment regulatory framework, including coordinated ex‑ante rules and access obligations, supports both competition and the effective attainment of the connectivity objectives, albeit at different speeds in different member states.
• Evidence of the networks’ performance is mixed, with the EU trailing on download speeds, moderate performance in upload, but leading in latency.
• A clear strength in the EU is the value for money. Consumers benefit from consistently lower fixed and mobile broadband prices than in the USA and South Korea, and broadly comparable to Japan.
• The urban-rural gap in terms of service availability is comparable with the USA and China.
• The European operators generally enjoy returns above their cost of capital with positive financial outlooks for the coming years.

Submit your contributions

Interested stakeholders are kindly requested to submit their contributions via EU Survey by 8 May 2026. Please note that no extension of the deadline can be granted.

After submitting the contribution, an acknowledgement of successful submissions will be displayed in the web browser together with the option to download or print it. If this acknowledgement is not displayed, the submission of the contribution was not successful, and it should be submitted again.

Contributions should be sent preferably in English, and, in order to facilitate processing of the responses, the comments provided should clearly refer to certain sections/subsections/paragraphs of the document.

In accordance with the BEREC policy on public consultations, BEREC will publish all contributions and a summary of the contributions, respecting confidentiality requests. In that regard, any request for reduction of the text on confidentiality grounds should clearly indicate which information is considered confidential and be accompanied by a non-confidential version.

We strongly encourage all stakeholders to submit their contributions as early as possible. Contributions received after the above-mentioned deadline will not be taken into account

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