European broadband improving, but more needs to be done

European Commission highlights 16 per cent jump in broadband speeds, but Ofcom and government need to align efforts

Broadband speeds have increased 15 per cent since this time last year, according to research released by the European Commission.

In July 2010, 29 per cent of EU broadband lines had speeds of at least 10 Mbit/s, an increase of 15 per cent on the previous year. Broadband uptake is also growing, with 25.6 subscriptions for every 100 citizens, compared with 23.9 a year earlier.

Mobile broadband also saw an annual growth of 45 per cent, with six dedicated access devices per 100 citizens.

Despite this success, the report suggests that Europe still needs to increase the speed of its internet access to compete with world leaders South Korea and Japan.

With 220 million households in the EU, and a target of at least 30Mbit/s for all households set out in the Digital Agenda 2020, published in March this year, it seems fast growth is necessary. However, a gap in policy direction between the government and Ofcom may make this difficult for the UK.

"The government's and Ofcom's policies on rural broadband conflict," said Chris Smedley, CEO of fibre network solutions provider Geo.

Smedley says that the government's pledged investment of £830m in superfast broadband by 2017 is not in line with Ofcom's policy established in October this year, for giving competing ISPs only limited access to BT's cost-effective ducts and poles.

"An unacceptable policy gap was created by Ofcom in October," added Smedley. "It clearly favours BT, which now has a huge cost advantage when pitching for rural broadband projects.

"The UK has a proud tradition of enabling infrastructure competition in the telecoms market. It is what powered the rollout of the current generation of broadband, and if swift corrective action is taken by Ofcom and the government, it can do so again," he concluded.

BT insists it is co-operating fully with Ofcom and the government, and that further developments will be announced next year.

"We are already in discussions with the industry about access to our ducts and poles and we will be making a draft offer in mid-January. This timeline has been set by the regulator," said a BT spokesperson.