With more than 11 million new fixed lines laid in a year, the take up of broadband internet continues to grow in Europe. According to a report published today by the European Commission, 24% of the EU population had a broadband access line subscription in July 2009, up from 21.6% in July 2008. The report also shows that mobile broadband is gaining momentum in Europe, with a 54% increase since January and now at a penetration rate of 4.2% per 100 citizens. Last but not least, broadband internet connections in Europe are increasingly faster. 80% of broadband lines in the EU now have download speeds of 2 megabits per second (Mbps) or greater (allowing the use of Web 2.0 and video streaming), which is 5% up from last year. "Despite the economic slowdown, Europe continues to have a very dynamic broadband market. Enhanced competition is driving better services, and consumers nowadays regard their broadband internet access as an essential part of life, " said EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding. "This is a good starting point for the next European Commission. Vibrant high-speed broadband markets in a competitive single telecoms market are a strategic priority in the European Digital Agenda that is currently being prepared in the Commission. High-speed internet broadband, whether via fibre networks or wireless, is a pre-condition for a strong digital economy in Europe and for European leadership in new technologies and applications. After the European Parliament and the Council have agreed, on 5 November, a new and pro-competitive regulatory framework for Europe's telecoms markets ( MEMO/09/491 ), I expect that the drive for the roll-out of high speed internet will now intensify across all EU Member States. Europe is clearly ready to make the next decade thoroughly digital." New figures published today by the Commission show that in the last year the number of broadband lines continued to grow throughout the EU by 10.7% on average (between July 2008 and July 2009), despite the gloomy economic environment . On 1 July 2009, there were around 120 million fixed broadband lines in the EU, of which 11.5 million lines have been added since July 2008.
"Despite the economic slowdown, Europe continues to have a very dynamic broadband market. Enhanced competition is driving better services, and consumers nowadays regard their broadband internet access as an essential part of life, " said EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding. "This is a good starting point for the next European Commission. Vibrant high-speed broadband markets in a competitive single telecoms market are a strategic priority in the European Digital Agenda that is currently being prepared in the Commission. High-speed internet broadband, whether via fibre networks or wireless, is a pre-condition for a strong digital economy in Europe and for European leadership in new technologies and applications. After the European Parliament and the Council have agreed, on 5 November, a new and pro-competitive regulatory framework for Europe's telecoms markets ( MEMO/09/491 ), I expect that the drive for the roll-out of high speed internet will now intensify across all EU Member States. Europe is clearly ready to make the next decade thoroughly digital."
New figures published today by the Commission show that in the last year the number of broadband lines continued to grow throughout the EU by 10.7% on average (between July 2008 and July 2009), despite the gloomy economic environment . On 1 July 2009, there were around 120 million fixed broadband lines in the EU, of which 11.5 million lines have been added since July 2008.
of course if you have put a lot of energy buying up national media and systematically dumbing down the electorate to keep it in your rancid pocket, the last thing you want is your faithful voters figuring out they are being treated like mushrooms, kept in the dark and fed copious amounts of horseshit.
so for fear of political and social freedom, italy is condemning herself to missing the digital grand euro plan, and being almost totally marginalised in the web 2.0 economy.
nice work silvio, stymie a whole nation's evolution to keep your ass out of the clink. ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
And why would it be "against all odds" that penetration for a valuable service increases? A case of [Europe.Is.Doomed™ Alert] within the EU Commission? In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Enhanced competition is driving better services, and consumers nowadays regard their broadband internet access as an essential part of life
So it certainly looks like this Europe.Is.Doomed case is not coming from the EU Commission itself, but can be narrowed down to the people who are entrusted to putting EU press releases in English language together. What does it tell us, hmmmm? Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.
Serious PeopleTM conventional wisdom that dictates that: Broadband is a luxury item, not a basic utility like water, electricity or sanitation
Never mind that the obligation to identify pay-as-you-go customers comes from the EU and has nothing to do with consumer rights but with State security concerns...
The pay-as-you-go applies to mobile phone SIM cards, not residential broadband, no?
I'd like to know how widespread Japan's famed 100MB really is. 100MB in urban areas is not that special - you can find it in parts of London.
As a revealing indicator, I'd be more interested in the baseline service on Japan's less central islands.
I recently came across a mail from someone trying to kill a project, asking for various calculations before it could go on, that had to take into accounts some powers expressed in kW.h/h.
I mentioned in passing that it simplified nicely as kW and that it did not bode well for the person's competence. Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi
You can achieve 10 kW.h/h with 10 kW during one hour, or 600 kW during one minute and then 0 kW during the following 59 minutes... Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.
And average power should still be expressed in kW.
Anyway, I know you're trying to catch me ;-) Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi
If one wants to denote average power over some time frame, one should specifically say so. Also, different kernels (weighting functions) result in different output - the naive 'sum of previous n values/n' rectangle filter is very lumpy in frequency space (sinc function), instead it's better to use something monotonic like the exponential weighting function (each average is a convex combination of the current value and the previous average).
(The thing about nitpicks is that there is always someone more pedantical than you :)
