Government Technology

Eight EU Member States Ahead of the U.S. in Broadband Deployment says European Commission


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March 19, 2008 By

Photo: Viviane Reding, EU Telecom Commissioner 

Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden are world leaders in broadband deployment with penetration rates over 30 percent at the end of 2007, says the European Commission's 13th Progress Report on the Single Telecoms Market issued today. These EU countries, together with the United Kingdom, Belgium, Luxembourg and France, all had broadband penetration rates higher than the U.S. (22.1 percent) in July 2007. Nineteen million broadband lines were added in the EU in 2007, the equivalent of more than 50,000 households every day. The broadband sector generated estimated revenues of Euro 62 billion and Europe's overall penetration reached 20 percent. However, there is considerable scope for further consumer benefits from a reinforced single market, strengthened competition and reduced regulatory burden for market players.

"The European regulatory model is designed to increase competition in the telecoms market and this certainly is starting to pay off," said Viviane Reding, the EU's telecom commissioner. "However, the job is not yet done. Competition is limited for access to the fixed network which is still provided to 86.5 percent of customers over the incumbent's infrastructure. In addition, though telecoms technologies know no borders, only 30 percent of major operators' EU business is outside their home market. This shows that we still lack an attractive single market for businesses and services of European dimensions, so we must intensify our efforts to reduce the regulatory borders in Europe. Only by opening up the single market for business will Europe become competitive and will consumers benefit from a wide choice of rich and affordable services."

Today's report presents a snapshot of Europe's single telecom market as of December 2007, based on facts and figures from national telecom regulators and market players.

The telecom sector is worth nearly Euro 300 billion (2 percent of EU GDP) and grew by 1.9 percent last year, said the Commission in a release. 2007 was also the fifth consecutive year of increased investment in this sector, exceeding Euro 50 billion (similar to the U.S. and higher than China and Japan put together).


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