Broadband penetration in the European Union (EU) continues to grow and the gap between best and worst performing countries is narrowing, according to a report published by the European Commission on Friday.
Broadband penetration, which measures the number of broadband lines per 100 population, increased from 18.2 percent in July 2007to 21.7 percent in July 2008, while the gap between the highest penetration rate to the lowest rate narrowed from 28.4 percentage points to 27.7 percentage points in the time period.
Broadband connection is defined as downstream capacity equal to or higher than 144 kilo bits per second (bps).
Some 17 million fixed broadband lines were laid between July 2007 and July 2008 in the EU, bringing the total fixed broadband lines to 107 million. At the same time, mobile broadband is starting to take off, with 6.9 percent penetration in July 2008, says the report.
Globally, Denmark and the Netherlands continue to be world leaders in broadband, with penetration over 35 percent. Nine EU countries -- Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Britain, Luxembourg, Belgium, France, and Germany -- are above the United States which has a penetration rate of 25 percent.
The gap between the strongest (Denmark 37.2 percent) and weakest broadband performers (Bulgaria 9.5 percent) remains significant but is decreasing for the first time.
"Broadband growth remains strong, with the top EU countries firmly remaining world leaders in broadband penetration. I am also glad that other countries in Europe are catching up," said EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding.
The commission also published the first figures showing fixed broadband speeds, which is an important indicator in a knowledge-based society.
Three quarters of broadband lines in the EU are in the range of2 Mbps and above (62 percent between 2 and 10 Mbps, 13 percent above 10 Mbps), a speed which supports TV over the Internet. Extremely fast connections -- up to 100 Mbps or beyond -- such as fibre only cover 1.4 percent of European internet subscribers.
The report finds that Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) remains the EU's main broadband technology, with nearly 86 million lines. However, DSL growth continues to decrease rapidly, to the benefit of other fixed broadband technologies like cable, fibre to the home and wireless local loops, according to the report.
Other figures published for the first time show that broadband based on mobile technologies such as 3G and data services via datacards seems to be taking off in a number of member states.
Denmark, Greece, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Spain have reported a mobile broadband penetration rate above 10 percent. There were 34 million mobile broadband subscribers in the EU on July 1, 2008, not including France, the Netherlands and Britain which have not provided information on this.
The mobile penetration rate ranges from less than 1 percent in Belgium and Cyprus to nearly 20 percent in Spain, against an EU average of 6.9 percent.
Under an economic recovery plan of the European Commission, a further 1 billion euros (1.3 billion U.S. dollars) will be spent on high-speed Internet infrastructures.
Source: Xinhua
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