Brussels, 07/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - During a conference at the European Parliament last week, the commissioner responsible for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, defended the use of wireless broadband, and particularly the use of satellites, to reach the goal of 100% broadband coverage for Europeans by 2013. This goal has almost been attained as, today, 95% of consumers do have broadband. However, that also means that 10 million people, in rural or isolated areas, still do not have broadband access, the commissioner said. The installation of wired networks in these regions would be very costly and that is why other technologies, like terrestrial or satellite wireless networks, can step in. The commissioner is in favour of technology diversification to reach the objective of broadband access overall for two reasons. Firstly, although wireless technology is not as effective as the new generation cabled networks, they are of good quality and are constantly improving. This is the case of satellites. Using fixed and mobile solutions stimulates competition between technologies, forcing them to develop similar advantages to the benefit of consumers that will, in future, have a choice between several effective technologies. The commissioner said the Commission is “working hard to promote an efficient radio spectrum policy, opening up a sufficient amount of spectrum for the deployment of wireless broadband”. “To get 100% coverage at lowest cost, we need to use all of the tools at our disposal. Only if we do that will we achieve our goal and get every European digital”, she concluded. (I.L./transl.jl)