EU Broadband Digital Agenda to Boost Regional GDP by an Extra £93bn a Year

Europe’s Digital Agenda strategy, which among other things aims to make superfast broadband ISP speeds of 30Mbps+ available to everybody by 2020, could deliver a “digital bonus” worth up to £93.29 Billion (110bn Euros Annually) in regional Gross Domestic Product (more than 0.8% of GDP).

The European Commission (EC) made the claim today after releasing the results from a new 206 page study, which was carried out by an international team of experts and academics, into the effects of the Digital Agenda. Completion of this strategy would apparently result in a GDP boost through “more competition and economies of scale“.

Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the EC, said:

“We are wealthier and more competitive because of our Single Market. But it is not a true Single Market if the Internet and other telecoms are excluded. The digital Single Market is coffee for the economy, we’d be mad not to drink it.”

The study, which found that demand for bandwidth will continue to increase (nothing new there), claimed to have spotted several shortcomings in the current strategy and suggested a series of policy measures to tackle them.

EU Digital Agenda Policy Suggestions

* Reduced regulatory fragmentation (e.g. common rules on contract duration and transparency of bills);

* More European standardisation (to allow pan-European services of assured quality to emerge in areas such as e-Health, e-Energy, e-Mobility);

* The need for more coordination of the activities of national telecoms regulators at EU level.

Apparently the drivers for all this growth will be online content services, such as movies and games that “require guaranteed quality of service“. The EC has already signalled its intention to look seriously at the study’s proposals, albeit only over “the coming years“.