Commission study shows broadband Internet access set to rise in Europe
An independent European Commission study on 'The development of broadband access platforms in Europe,' released on 9 October, shows that European homes and SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) will increasingly turn to broadband internet access platforms such as ADSL and cable modem as demand for high speed Internet access grows. The study predicts that while cable modem and ADSL will rapidly become the leading technologies in high speed Internet access, several factors will affect the pace of broadband take-up in Member States. Enterprise and Information Society Commissioner Erkki Liikanen said: 'The study clearly tells us that the future of the Internet is broadband. What Europe needs now is a forward-looking strategy to ensure that broadband Internet comes quickly to all European citizens. It will be one of our top priorities in 2002.' The study says that accessing the Internet over cable TV networks using a cable modem or over the traditional copper telephone network using ADSL digital technology will soon become the most popular options for faster Internet access. It predicts that by 2005 they could together account for more than half of all SME (small and medium sized enterprises) and domestic Internet connections. The study also shows that the speed of broadband access take-up in EU homes and SMEs depends on a number of factors. It says that the demand for faster online access will be highest in Member States where the Internet is most popular. It also suggests that as competition between ADSL providers leads to more attractive packages for both business and domestic consumers, broadband take-up will be more rapid in those countries which have been fastest to liberalise the telecommunications market. Those Member States with the highest degree of cross-platform competition will also fare best in broadband access take-up, the study says, as roll-out is faster and prices more attractive where there is direct competition between cable modem and ADSL. The study also carried out a comparison of broadband household penetration in the EU, the USA and Japan. The results show that the USA is currently ahead of both the European Union and Japan in terms of broadband development and is likely to stay that way for between three and five years. In Japan, digital cable and ASDL are at a similar stage of roll-out to the EU, with total household penetration of 2.6 per cent for these types of Internet access, compared to 2.7 per cent in Europe. The USA leads the field at 4.3 per cent. The EU figure represents a current digital cable household penetration of 1.6 per cent, and 1.1 per cent for ADSL. The encouragement of Internet use by SMEs is one of the main objectives of the Commission's eEurope initiative, launched in 1999 to improve European competitiveness in the field of information and communication technologies. The report notes that despite the predicted popularity of ADSL and cable modem, both will be transitory solutions as neither has the capacity to cope with future multimedia demand. It says that the future of Internet access lies with fibre optic technology, which provides almost unlimited bandwidth, saying that fibre optics could account for 30 per cent of all Internet connections to European homes and SMEs by 2010. It says that while demand for fibre optic networks does not currently exist, this development is likely to take place in response to user demand for Internet applications and contents that exceed the capacity of other Internet technologies.