Brussels, 04/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - Increasing numbers of Europeans have access to a broadband Internet connection because of a reduction in prices and greater geographic coverage. The European Commission, however, has highlighted disparities between download speeds claimed by Internet operators and the real speed achieved by consumers. This was revealed in three broadband studies (on speeds equal to or above 30 Mbps) carried out on behalf of the Commission and published on 22 December.
Speed problem. The first study covers all EU countries, Iceland and Norway and shows that on average, EU fixed broadband customers are only getting 75% of the download speed advertised, the same as they were getting in 2013. The difference between advertised and delivered speed varied according to the broadband technology: xDSL-based services delivered only 63.3% of the advertised headline download speed than the broadband delivered over cable and fibre-based networks was more reliable, with cable-based networks delivering on average 86.5% of advertised speed and fibre optics (FTTx) 83%. The average advertised download speed across all countries and technologies was 47.9 Mbps (38.50 Mbps a year ago) during peak hours, compared to 38.19 Mbps (30.37 Mbps a year ago) of actual speed.
The study provides a comparison of the situation in Europe and the US. The actual download speeds attained in Europe were considerably higher than those measured in the USA by the same method but US operators are more reliable when they advertise download speeds. Therefore, download speeds attained in Europe for any given technology were considerably higher than those measured in the USA, with this being particularly marked for cable networks. Nonetheless, consumers in the USA get on average 101% of advertised download speeds (92% with xDSL, 113% with FTTx and 102% with cable technology).
Progress on prices and coverage. Despite a stabilisation in price between 2013 and 2014, broadband prices in the EU28 fell by about 12% between 2012 and 2015; the decline was particularly strong in the 30-100 Mbps speed category (by about 20% during the same period). Prices vary significantly in what is offered (package) and the country and could be up to 300% higher for a similar service depending on the location. It should be pointed out that the EU is less expensive than the US for broadband above 12Mbps, however, South Korea and Japan are cheaper than the EU28 for broadband above 30Mbps.
On the question of coverage, the third study shows that over 216 million EU households (99.4%) had access to at least one fixed or a mobile broadband technology at the end of 2014 (excluding satellite). High speed mobile broadband (4G based on LTE) coverage went up from 59.1% in 2013 to 79.4% in 2014. Next Generation Access (NGA) technologies (capable of delivering at least 30Mbps) were available to 68.1%, up from 61.9% a year ago.
In conclusion, the Commission points out that under the recent agreement on the Telecoms Single Market package (“Connected Continent”) of 30 April 2015, operators will need to be more transparent. They will have to inform customers of fixed internet access about the minimum, normally available, maximum and advertised internet speeds they can expect to get; in mobile networks, operators will have to inform of the estimated maximum and advertised speed. Operators will also have to explain the remedies consumers have if they do not get the speeds for which they have subscribed. National regulators will make sure that operators meet these new requirements and deal with complaints by users. The reports are available at the following address: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/news/broadband-speeds-europe-are-not-delivering-their-promisses-broadband-prices-are-declining (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)