By Huw Jones
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -
The European Commission wants to raise
broadband Internet penetration in the European Union to 30
percent in 2010 from 20 percent today in an effort to drive
economic growth, its top telecoms regulator said on Wednesday.
Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding said only
eight of the bloc's 27 member states were ahead of the United
States in broadband use, with Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands
and Sweden world leaders with nearly a third of homes hooked
up.
"These EU countries, together with the United Kingdom,
Belgium, Luxembourg and France, all had broadband penetration
rates higher than the United States in July 2007," Reding said
in her annual update on competition in telecoms markets.
Broadband use in Europe reached 20 percent overall, still
lagging the 22.1 percent in the United States.
Reding said she wants broadband penetration to hit 30
percent by 2010 and that her proposed reforms of the telecoms
market would help the bloc reach this target.
Reding sees increasing the use of broadband as key to
boosting competition in the retail sector, offering consumers
more choice and driving down prices.
Broadband is also seen as key to helping set up new
businesses, particularly in more remote regions.
She said she was confident that her reforms, now before the
European Parliament and EU states for approval, would be
adopted by April 2009 when parliamentary business winds down
ahead of European elections in June.
The EU's 300 billion euro ($470 billion) telecoms market
grew 1.9 percent last year when it saw investment up for a
fifth year running, which showed EU telecoms rules were having
an impact on boosting competition, Reding said.
"However, the job is not yet done. Competition is limited
for access to the fixed network which is still provided to 86.5
percent of customers over the incumbent's infrastructure," she
said in reference to former state-owned monopoly operators such
as Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE) and France Telecom (FTE.PA).
Reding said the charges levied by one mobile phone operator
for handling another's calls were far too high and needed
tackling.
Investment in telecoms in the EU last year was over 50
billion euros, in line with the United States and higher than
in China and Japan combined, she said.
Some 19 million broadband lines were added in the EU in
2007, the equivalent of more than 50,000 households every day
in a sector that generated estimated revenues of 62 billion
euros.
Former monopoly operators have accused Reding of wanting to
over-regulate and make it harder to justify investment but new
entrants welcomed her comments on Wednesday.
ECTA, a lobby which represents new entrants, said
incumbents just wanted to protect their strong market shares.
(Reporting by Huw Jones, editing by Jason Neely/Elaine
Hardcastle)
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