Posted: 24th Feb, 2004 By: MarkJ
The European Commission has hailed the success of its
eEurope 2005 action plan, which aims to help get people online and develop e-Government services. It claims that 40% of EU homes are now able to access the Internet:
In its report published last week, the Commission highlights two sectors in particular for praise - egovernment and broadband roll out. Firstly, the share of the government services now available online has risen from 17% to 43% between October 2001 to October 2003.
Huge differences still exist between some of the member states, however, both in terms of services offered as well as ability to interact with the governments concerned.
Secondly, when it comes to broadband, Brussels has been indulging in some backslapping over the "good progress" on the number of connected households, which has practically doubled between October 2002 and October 2003, reaching more than 40%, with most schools and business joining them, according to the Commission.We fear that getting half of Europe connected may prove to be small potatoes when it comes to getting the remaining half online. More @
Silicon.