Germany (and Europe) late in Broadband?

DT recently presented a report on "Deutschland Online 4" forecast on the evolution of number of of broadband connections in Germany. There would be 21m broadband accesses in 2010 and 27m in 2015 (or 70% of household penetration). 2.6m Germans would use triple-play services in 2006 and up to 7.5m in 2015. So the numbers are not so dramatic, but the report warns that Germany and more generally Europe are loosing ground in innovation. Germany is ranked 7^th worldwide in broadband innovation and the second in Europe behind Sweden. Europe is trailing US and Asia, and nobody forecasts a change. This warning is not alone, and recently EU said it is investing €9bn in ICT R&D to make Europe catching with the US and Asia. But on the wallpaper of the conference, there is also the fight between EU Commission and DT/German Gov. on DT' s VDSL project. DT committed on a €3bn project to roll out a very ambitious FTTx network in Germany, but barred by EU if the network is not open to competitors. So what? Strategy or marketing?