Technology, Media And Telecommunications 2017

1. OVERVIEW

The Luxembourg TMT sector has evolved from being predominantly a provider of voice services into a diverse, competitive and interconnected industry using terrestrial, satellite and wireless transmission systems. Today, Luxembourg has first class infrastructure and telecommunication networks and is counted among the top locations for electronic communication services and infrastructure. In the 2016 edition of the Global Information Technology Report (GITR Report) published by the World Economic Forum, Luxembourg is listed ninth out of 139 countries with regard to innovation in the digital economy, and its steady upward trend relating to its overall score is recognised.

The ICT development index 2016, analysing the introduction of ICT and the potential for ICT-related development, ranked Luxembourg 11th out of 175 countries.2

Traditionally, the sector was limited to a very few players. Telecommunication and postal services were operated for several decades as a public monopoly of the state-owned Entreprise des Postes et Télécommunications (EPT).3 The radio and television sector was controlled and developed from its early years by a privately owned company. Indeed, the first radio broadcasting in Luxembourg was initiated by the founders of the current broadcaster, CLT-UFA. The privately held operator was ensured a leading role in the national and international development of the radio and television sector, and today RTL Group ranks as the top television and radio broadcaster in Europe. Luxembourg has also been a pioneer in non-terrestrial communication technology. SES-Astra, a Luxembourg-based company created in 1985, was Europe's first private satellite operator, and SES now has global standing.

The presence of important market players in the TMT and TMT-related sectors in Luxembourg and related know-how and experience have led the government to make efforts to maintain, create and further develop its electronic telecommunication technologies with the aims of being among the best places in Europe and abroad to do business within the sector and of being a hub for e-services in Europe. These aims have been continuously pursued and reaffirmed by the government since 2010 to date. To reach these aims, the government, together with a group of private investors, set up a fund dedicated to ICT4 start-ups: the Digital Tech Fund. The GITR Report confirms the success of these efforts, as Luxembourg is in first and second position, respectively, in relation to its political and regulatory environment regarding individual usage. Luxembourg is ranked fifth and sixth, respectively, in terms of the importance of ICT in the government vision's and governmental success in ICT promotion. According to the Digital Economy and Society Index of the European Commission, Luxembourg is ranked second among all European Union countries in regard to its connectivity and human capital.5

Luxembourg combines many features that are beneficial to the development of an ICT sector, including the diversity and multilingual skills of the population and workforce, a geographical location in the centre of Europe and an important financial industry in need of high-performance communication technologies. In addition, Luxembourg has gradually developed a state-of-the-art digital infrastructure, international telecommunication connections (offering fast and reliable connectivity to other European cities at very low latency rates), efficient national communication...