In the white paper “How to Master Europe’s Infrastructure Needs”, published in February 2024, the European Commission presented its views on the future of connectivity and potential implications for European telecommunication policy. The Ministry of Economic Affairs in the Netherlands commissioned Plum and our partners for this project, Stratix, to analyse and explain the underlying[…]
The European Commission’s White Paper “How to master Europe’s digital infrastructure needs?” makes radical proposals to expand both the reach and the depth of the European Electronic Communications Code to many new players in the broader Internet ecosystem. This report analyses the context of these proposals, how the Commission justifies them, who they might affect[…]
Plum carried out a study supporting the Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to assess barriers to connectivity and adoption of digital services in the Cheshire and Warrington area in the North-West of England. The study analysed the availability and reach of digital infrastructure in the region. It also investigated demand-side barriers to take-up[…]
Digital services are already a central feature of our everyday lives. However, we may be just at the start of a journey on which more and more transactions and experiences will migrate from the physical to the digital world. Development of digital services in the coming decade has the potential to deliver innovative use cases[…]
In the European Union (EU), representative bodies of Internet Service Providers (ISPs), such as ETNO (the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association), have recently reopened the debate requesting that Content and Application Providers (CAPs) pay a content levy of sorts for traffic routed to the ISPs’ networks. We describe this as a “Sender Party Network Pays”[…]
Plum prepared a major study exploring the mutually beneficial relationships that exist between participants in the telecommunications sector, including connectivity providers and online service providers. The study sets out a view of the wider telecoms sector and value chain, and identifies a number of mutually beneficial relationships that exist between sector players, and which serve[…]
The Internet has been one of the most life-changing and fast-growing technologies in the world. According to the latest ITU estimates, 4.9 billion individuals around the globe are using the Internet, which is 4.8 times more than in 2005. The average global Internet user spends around 7 hours per day online, and in 2021 alone,[…]
In July 2022, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and Ofcom published a joint statement on online safety and competition in digital markets.[1] The statement follows the introduction of the Online Safety Bill to the UK parliament in March 2022. The current draft of the Online Safety Bill requires firms in scope – including[…]
Online advertising is a key enabler of the digital economy and supports a wide range of digital services enjoyed by consumers today. However, as the industry has grown in size and sophistication, concerns over the harmful aspects of online advertising have put the spotlight on the way in which the sector operates. The fast-evolving nature[…]
The omnipresence of digital technology in our daily life, its use and its impact on organisations and individuals, raises ethical questions about its role in our society. These concerns include consent and privacy, security, inclusion and fairness, protection from online harm, transparency and accountability. Notable examples include the Cambridge Analytica scandal and concerns about racial[…]