EU to boost broadband access

EU to boost broadband access

the EU targets that all EU citizens could have a broadband access by 2010, from current 12%-15% penetration rate. Broadband penetration has made significant gain, but mostly in urban areas or small densely populated countries. It is why it has launched a €70m rural development fund to close the digital divide, and asked for more public-private partnerships to roll out the broadband technology according to local needs ans possibilities. 19 nations in the EU are below average, including 10 new comers, Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal. On the other side, Scandinavia and Netherlands have the highest penetration rates (>20%), followed by Belgium (18%), France and England with 15%.

So the call is on the governments to do more to get people in remote and rural areas online.