According to official EC figures released last week, broadband speeds in Europe have significantly increased in just one year, but more still needs to be done.
Figures revealed that in July 2010 29% of EU broadband lines ran at speeds of at least 10 Mbps, compared to just 15% in July 2009. Broadband sign-ups in the EU also increased, with 25.6 subscriptions per 100 EU citizens in 2010, compared to almost 24 in 2009.
Neelie Kroes, Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda stated that “Fast broadband is digital oxygen, essential for Europe´s prosperity and well-being. Take up and available speeds are improving, but we need to do more to reach our very fast broadband targets.”
The EC aims to give every European citizen access to a speed of 30Mbps or more by 2020 and half of all the 220 million households in the region access to 100mbps broadband.
Even though more needs to be done in order for the EU to reach its broadband target, the figures are definitely heading in the right direction for online video. According to Cisco, by 2014 global online video will approach 57% of consumer Internet traffic (up from 40% in 2010) and the various forms of video (TV, VoD, Internet Video and P2P) will exceed 91% of global consumer traffic.
Click on the following link to access a full version of the report: ‘Digital Agenda: broadband speeds increasing but Europe must do more‘.
