Fast and ultra-fast Internet access

The Commission adopted three complementary measures to deliver fast and ultra-fast broadband in Europe in September 2010: a Recommendation on regulated access to Next Generation Access, a Radio Spectrum Policy Programme and a Communication on Broadband. Now the focus is on working with Member States and stakeholders on putting the proposals into practice as well as on financing solutions for the investment needed to upgrade Europe to high-speed infrastructures.

The electronic communications sector performed slightly better in 2010 than the year before. Although overall revenue growth was still negative (-0.7%), revenues grew in fixed internet access (+5.6%), mobile data services (+9.4%) and pay TV (+6.8%), but fell in traditional fixed voice (-6.7%) and mobile voice (-4.2%).

Coverage of fixed broadband access stood at 95% in 2010, but there were still 23.5 million citizens in the EU (including 18 million living in rural areas) who were not able to connect to broadband Internet. If this current trend continues, by 2013, the whole of the EU population is expected to have access to some kind of commercially viable broadband service, fulfilling one of the Digital Agenda and "Europe 2020" targets.

Take-up of fixed broadband is increasing, but the growth rate in 2010 was the lowest since 2002. In January 2011, there were 26.6 fixed broadband lines per 100 inhabitants in the EU. The slowdown in growth is of concern, as currently close to 40% of households still have no broadband connection. At the same time, mobile broadband is getting more and more popular. Coverage of third generation mobile networks reached 90% in 2010, and take-up of mobile internet on large screens such as notebooks (through a dedicated data device) increased to 7.2%.

The Digital Agenda for Europe's goal of 30 Mbps universal coverage is already available for almost 30% of all households; however, only 5% of all fixed lines deliver speeds of 30 Mbps and above. The number of households connecting at 100 Mbps was still marginal in January 2011, while 39% of fixed broadband lines featured speeds between 10 Mbps and 30 Mbps.

Documents

• Broadband access in the EU: Situation at 1 July 2011 (New)
  • Country charts
  • Main tables
• Study on broadband access costs 2011 (SMART 2010/0038) (New)
  • Monthly cost calculator
• Study on Broadband coverage (SMART 2010/0037) (New)
• Monitoring fast and ultra-fast Internet access
• Electronic communications market indicators
• Pillar actions overview

Additional documents

• Report on Price Developments for voice telephony (1998 - 2010)
• Database on electronic communications market indicators