The Guidelines are drafted pursuant to Article 82 of the European Electronic Communications Code (2018/72/EU) (EECC) to provide guidance to national regulatory authorities (NRAs) “on the criteria that a network is to fulfil in order to be considered a very high capacity network, in particular in terms of down- and uplink bandwidth, resilience, error-related parameters, and latency and its variation” (Article 82). Under Article 4(4) of the BEREC Regulation (2018/1972/EU), NRAs are required to “take the utmost account” of the Guidelines. BEREC says that the Guidelines contribute to the harmonisation of the definition of the term “very high capacity network” in the EU.

BEREC published the first version of the Guidelines in 2020 and determined that any network which fulfils one (or more) of four criteria is a “very high capacity network”. However, at that time it was not yet possible to take 5G fully into account, as it had not yet reached mature deployment and significant penetration. In this new version of the Guidelines, BEREC has updated criterion 4 (performance thresholds for wireless networks) based on data collected from mobile network operators on 5G. The other three criteria remain unchanged.

BEREC is consulting on the update. The deadline for responding is 28 April 2023. To access the updated Guidelines and consultation, click here.