INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY : EUROPE AT FOREFRONT OF BROADBAND PENETRATION.

Nine EU member states are world leaders in broadband penetration and the EU as a whole registered a 21.7% rate of broadband penetration in July 2008, a pronounced increase over July 2007 (18.2%). On 1 July 2008, there were over 107 million fixed broadband lines in the Union. A report, published on 28 November by the European Commission, also shows that the gap between the best and worst performers in the EU is narrowing.

Telecommunications Commissioner Viviane Reding commented that under the economic stimulus plan presented by the Commission this week, "we plan to channel a further 1 billion of EU funding into high-speed internet infrastructures. I expect that this additional measure, together with a strong policy emphasis on effective competition and further market opening, will pave the way for broadband for all Europeans by 2010 and for high-speed internet for all Europeans by 2015".

On the whole, Denmark and the Netherlands continue to be world leaders in broadband, with penetration over 35%. Nine EU countries (Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Belgium, France and Germany) are above the United States, where penetration stands at 25%, according to OECD June 2008 statistics.

The gap between the countries with the highest penetration (Denmark, with 37.2%) and the lowest (Bulgaria, with 9.5%) is still wide but is narrowing for the first time (penetration in Denmark was 34.1% in July 2007, while in Bulgaria it was 5.7%). This gap, explains the Commission, is due primarily to the lack of competition and regulatory weaknesses. These obstacles to the development of broadband still have to be addressed through reform of the EU's telecoms rules, on which the Council acted at first reading, on 27 November.

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The Commission has also put out the first figures on...

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