Brussels, 18/11/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 18 November, the European Commission announced in its new half yearly report that despite the economic slowdown, broadband internet is an excellent indicator of information and communication technology development, and continues to grow in Europe. The European commissioner responsible for information and media, Viviane Reding, welcomed this progress and pointed out that the existence of dynamic broadband internet markets constituted a strategic priority in the Digital Agenda for Europe, which the European Commission is currently developing. The commissioner indicated that " vibrant high-speed broadband markets in a competitive single telecoms market are a strategic priority in the European Digital Agenda that is currently being prepared in the Commission. High-speed internet broadband, whether via fibre networks or wireless, is a pre-condition for a strong digital economy in Europe and for European leadership in new technologies and applications".
Figures published by the Commission show that in the last year the number of broadband lines continued to grow throughout the EU by 10.7% on average (between July 2008 and July 2009), despite the gloomy economic environment. On 1 July 2009, there were around 120 million fixed broadband lines in the EU, of which 11.5 million lines have been added since July 2008. Denmark and the Netherlands continue to be world leaders in broadband take up, with nearly 40% of the population having a broadband connection, but growth rates are slowing as they approach saturation. Nine EU countries (Denmark 37.3%, the Netherlands 36.2%, Sweden 31.3%, Finland 30.7%, Luxembourg 28.8%, the United Kingdom 28.4%, France 27.7%, Germany 27.5% and now also Belgium 27.5%) are above the United States, where the level of broadband take up stands at 25.8% and is slowing. Luxembourg (+18.3%) and Portugal (+11.7%) experienced faster growth in 2009 than in 2008.
The average market share of incumbent telecoms operators in the EU is stable at around 45% (highest at 80% in Cyprus, 67% in both Luxembourg and Finland and lowest at 27% in the UK). However, incumbent control over the broadband markets (including resale of wholesale lines) is structurally in decline to the benefit of infrastructure base competition (basically through the local loop unbundling that enables access to the network by third parties). Full unbundled local loops and shared access lines represent 71.4% of Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL), up from 65.2% one year ago. Growth in the number of unbundled local loops, although slower than last year, takes place at the expenses of resale, a type of low-investment access for new entrants, which has shrunk from 18.2% to 10.6% of DSL lines since 2008. Telecoms new entrants have appeared to invest progressively and have contributed to creating a more competitive broadband market.
The Commission report also shows that EU citizens enjoy higher speeds and better quality broadband than a year ago. Eighty per cent of broadband lines in the EU deliver speeds above 2 Mbps (75% a year ago), fast enough to watch streaming videos online, and more than 15% above 10 Mbps (up 10% since January 2009). Greater data transmission speeds generally provide customers with more and better choice at a lower price per megabit. In terms of technology, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) remains the most diffused broadband access technology in Europe with 94 million lines. Fibre-to-the-home grew by 40% between July 2008 and July 2009, but at the moment only represents 1.75% of the total lines in Europe as it is present only in a handful of countries: Latvia has the largest share of fibre lines over the total number of broadband lines, followed by Sweden which has the largest number of fibre lines. Broadband access based on mobile technologies (which typically allow mobile internet via laptops) is particularly taking off in Austria (13.8%), Sweden (12.6%), Portugal (10.8%) and Ireland (8.3%). The current mobile broadband penetration in Europe stands at 4.2%, a 54% increase since January 2009. (I.L./transl.rh)