BERLIN -- Europe's leading independent private telecoms companies have today announced the creation of a new industry association named GIGAEurope. Built on the foundations of Cable Europe, the association will promote the industry's interests, and in the longer term become an umbrella organization for a broad section of the connectivity industry.

GIGAEurope's founding members include most of the current Cable Europe membership and companies dedicated to providing customers with reliable and secure gigabit-speed end-to-end connectivity. They include leading converged video, broadband and communications companies Liberty Global, Vodafone and Telenet.

The association will advocate for its members' interests based on three core principles: policies must strike the right balance between investment and competition; private investment is preferred to public investment; and regulation should be carefully considered, and not pre-emptive. GIGAEurope will look to represent a wide section of the communications industry – not only connectivity providers or related organizations, but also organizations that are part of the growing wider digital ecosystem.

In addition, GIGAEurope will advocate policies that promote the Digital Single Market in order to boost competition and encourage innovation, enabling European companies to scale effectively. The organisation will further intensify the dialogue with policy makers regarding the industry's value as an investor in the communications infrastructure that underpins the European economy and ensure a level playing field across the entire internet ecosystem.

The new organization was announced by Manuel Kohnstamm Senior Vice President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer for Liberty Global, and Joakim Reiter, Group External Affairs Director for Vodafone Group, at the opening day of Cable Congress in Berlin.

Manuel Kohnstamm said: "We are building tomorrow's networks today. Our Gigabit fixed-mobile converged networks are at the heart of the next digital revolution, opening up a whole new universe of innovations and opportunities for customers, businesses and governments. GIGAEurope will bring a strong new voice to the table, working with policy makers on the right investment climate to accelerate the growth of our networks in Europe."

Joakim Reiter said: "To face the challenges ahead, we need a new approach which joins the forces of the independent private telecoms companies who invest, build and operate state-of-the-art communications networks and are trusted providers of seamless, high speed, high quality connectivity."

GIGAEurope