Brussels, 15/10/2007 (Agence Europe) - The gap is growing between European countries with a high penetration level for broadband access and those with lower penetration rates. Certain European countries have made a great deal of progress, making them among the top in the world today, but others have made little or no progress. These were the findings of a report presented on Monday by the European Commission, which describes the lack of competition and regulatory shortfalls as among the main obstacles to broadband development.
Overall, broadband continued its growth throughout the EU last year, with businesses and citizens continuing to benefit from the digital revolution. The average penetration rate (in numbers of subscribers as a percentage of the total population) has risen from 14.9% 18.2%. As of 1 July 2007, the number of fixed broadband lines stood at over 90 million throughout the 27 Member States, including 20 million new lines (not including Bulgaria and Romania) since July 2006, representing growth of 28.7%. Growth was particularly high in Denmark (with 7.7 new lines for every 100 inhabitants), Luxembourg (7.1 lines per 100 inhabitants) and Ireland (6.7 lines per 100 inhabitants). Denmark is the European country with the highest broadband penetration rate today, with 37.2%, followed by the Netherlands (33.1%). In these countries, one-third of the population or more has access to broadband, and a high number of users are using infrastructure other than that provided by the historic operators. Other countries, however, are lagging behind, such as Bulgaria, with the lowest broadband penetration rate (5.7%), Romania (6.6%), Greece and Portugal (6.8% each) and Slovakia (6.9%). The main reasons are the absence of genuine alternative infrastructure, or an overly slow and incoherent implementation of existing remedies, such as the obligation on the historical operators to provide access to their networks.
The report also reveals that the DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) remains the principal broadband technology of the EU, with some 72.5 million lines. The growth of the DSL, however, has slowed by 6.1% compared to the situation in July 2006, whereas other technologies, such as cable, FTTH (Fiber to the home ) and local wireless loops are being used more and more frequently, with a total of 17.7 million lines. DSL subscriptions have enabled strong competition, as proven by the sharp increase in unbundled local group products. 55.4% of the DSL lines of the alternative operators (of 17.6 million lines) are now totally or partially unbundled, compared to 45.9% in July 2006. It is worth noting that local group unbundling allows new competitors to the market to offer “broadband” transmission services for continuous Internet services and for multimedia applications based on the “DSL” technology, as well as for conventional telephone services. Resales, which accounts for 8.2 million lines, remains a major type of bulk access, particularly in the United Kingdom, where the national regulator has imposed a requirement for functional separation, thus guaranteeing that reselling takes place under non-discriminatory conditions, and in Germany, where resellers still depend largely on conditions imposed by the historical operator. The report goes on to note that the market share for alternative operators has continued to grow in Europe, reaching 53.5% in July of this year, but their market share is still only 44.3% if the resales of the DSL lines of the historical operator are not counted. Lastly, the alternative operators are increasingly investing in their own networks, instead of using services dependent on the infrastructure of the historical operators. In conclusion, investment must be encouraged further in order to achieve a more balanced growth across the EU, the report recommends. The Commission promises to do all in its power to achieve better results in terms of broadband access in its proposals for the reform of the Community rules on telecommunications, to be presented on 13 November. “Broadband for all” tops the list of its priorities. (I.L.)