Europe on the right track to Information society
An online discussion hosted by eubusiness.com has revealed confidence that Europe can outpace the US in creating the Information society - the development of the wireless Internet. The debate, in which Martin Ulbrich of the Information society DG took part, highlighted some positive indicators which implied that Europe may take the lead in some of the areas key to a true information society. For example, Internet take up rates in the US are slowing, but there is little sign of the same occurring in Europe (though the US does have higher rates of connected households). One member of the discussion also believed that the manner of implementing the new infrastructures had taken place in a more cohesive way in Europe than the US. 'The US has begun re-implementing its digital comms' networks to accommodate the new technology because of rash decisions 'to be the first to have'. Whereas Europe with CDMA, GSM and G3 comms, has chosen a smarter more integrated solution,' said Paul-Lewis Greenstoc. Regarding one of the main factors holding back citizens from further embracing the Internet, privacy and security concerns, Ulbrich was upbeat that the European privacy directive would help to create a framework in which there would be greater trust.