Despite broadband's rapid growth, just 13% of the EU's 450 million people have high-speed Internet access. To combat this the European Commission has issued a series of proposals aimed at improving coverage across the union by 2010:

“Broadband internet connections are a prerequisite for e-business, growth and jobs throughout the economy. Competition and open markets are certainly the best drivers of broadband in the EU”, said Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media.

“However, broadband connections must not be limited to the big cities. If the EU and its 25 Member States make a clever use of all policy instruments, broadband for all Europeans is certainly not out of reach by 2010. But the time to act is now.”

Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes underlined the importance of EU state aid rules in this respect: “Deployment of broadband may be hampered by market failures in rural and remote areas. In such cases, well-targeted state aid may therefore be appropriate, e.g. in the form of public private partnerships to support the construction of open networks. But we have to make sure that state aid does not crowd out private initiative, nor distort competition to an extent contrary to the common interest.”

Rapid progress in broadband take-up across Europe in the past three years can largely be ascribed to a combination of competing infrastructures and effective telecoms regulation. The broadband penetration rate at the end of 2005 is estimated at 13% of population or about 25% of households, reaching almost 60 million lines throughout the EU. Despite fast growth, broadband has yet to reach some of the EU’s less-developed areas because of low and uncertain returns on investment. In 2005, broadband was available to about 60% of businesses and households in the remote and rural areas of the EU15, and to more than 90% in the urban areas, but the gap is greater in the new Member States.

Broadband speeds are often lower in the countryside too, which makes it difficult to carry the large volumes of data needed for e-business, e-government, e-health and multimedia content applications. Rural broadband speeds average less than 512 kbps, whereas urban ones are rising and now often exceed 1 MBps, permitting the use of rich services.

We're pleased to see the EU recognising that not having access to service speeds above 512Kbps is also a significantly limiting factor. Unfortunately there's no clear plan for how best to address this.