EU proposes to close broadband gap between Old and New Europe
By Dave Parrack
Broadband usage in Europe has increased by 28.7% in the past year, but there is still a big gap between Old and New Europe. The EU is now proposing to try and close this gap in broadband availability between the East and West.
Access has increased in the European union to 90 million lines, but there is still a huge and ever widening gap between countries such as Denmark and the Netherlands compared to countries such as Romania and Bulgaria.
Denmark is the European country with the best broadband infrastructure with 37.2% of the population having access. At the other end of the scale is Bulgaria, where a paltry 5.7% of the population would have access to broadband should they want it.
Reuters is reporting the EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding as saying in a statement:
“It is unacceptable that the gap between the strongest and weakest performers in Europe is growing. Europe must act now to get its broadband house in order,”
“Lack of competition and regulatory weaknesses are cited as the main obstacles to broadband growth.”
The EU are planning a package of reforms for the new EU Telecom Rules on 13 November 2007, and it looks like forcing more competition in countries where broadband has yet to flourish will be central to these new proposals.
The fact that some countries have less accessibility to high speed Internet lines shouldn’t really come as a surprise as the infrastructure just isn’t there in some of the New European countries to build on in the first place.
Eastern European countries tend to have state owned or state controlled telecoms companies running the majority of the new technology, and money (or a lack of it) is obviously a factor in introducing new features, of which readily available broadband is one.
Making high speed Internet connections available to the general populous (many of whom couldn’t afford it) isn’t really at the top of these countries agendas. Unfortunate but true.
The EU will have a tough time neutralising the gap between the haves of Western Europe and the have-nots of East Europe but if it can be done, it could open up whole new markets in a ripe New Europe.
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