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Finland has second highest broadband penetration rate in the EU
26/03/2008
The European Commission’s 13th Progress Report also shows that the Finns have been adopting broadband technology faster than anyone else in the EU.
Finland’s broadband penetration rate is currently second only to Denmark within the EU, according to the European Commission’s 13th Progress Report on the Single Telecoms Market.
The report also shows that the Finns have been adopting broadband technology faster than anyone else in the EU. In 2007, 34.6 percent of households in Finland had a broadband connection, compared to 35.6 percent in Denmark. Finland ranks among the top broadband countries in the world.
The European Commission is aiming to increase the broadband penetration rate from the current figure of 20 percent to 30 percent across the whole of the EU by 2010. In addition to Finland and Denmark, eight other EU countries are also ahead of the United States in the broadband take-up statistics: Netherlands, Sweden, Britain, Belgium, Luxembourg and France.
Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Information Society and Media, believes that there is still a great deal to be done in order to make Europe into an attractive single market for businesses and services. In her view, the regulatory burden facing telecommunications companies should be tackled more intensively.
According to the report, the penetration rate for mobile phones in Finland is 108 percent, which is close to the EU average. Finland enjoys some of the lowest call charges in Europe, but connection charges are increasing in less populated areas. The report points to the continuing dominance of the traditional large telecommunications companies as an obstacle to the development of the sector in Finland. As a result, in many places around the country, fixed broadband is only available from one service provider. The smaller operators planning to use the networks of the major operators are finding that mobile connections are increasingly taking over from landline connections.
The report notes that consumers in the EU have benefited from the lower prices brought about by increased competition in the telecommunications sector, which has also seen considerable growth in both the fixed broadband and mobile services.
Source: IT-Viikko
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