EUROPE PAVES ITS WAY TO BROADBAND
Broadband in Europe is “only at the end of the early- adopter phase,” Alcatel Dir.-Carrier Service Market Development Scott Robinson said Thurs. at 4-day EURESCOM Summit in Heidelberg, Germany. He said there were 6.4 million DSL lines installed in Europe, and in some European countries DSL availability had reached 90%. He said several requirements needed to be met to make broadband success in mass market: (1) Price level shouldn’t be more than 30% higher than narrowband Internet access. (2) “Compelling content drives end-user adoption.” Robinson said music and games were primary drivers of broadband in consumer market. Some speakers said “advanced but simple interfaces” also were crucial for successful deployment of broadband services. Joachim Claus, head of innovation management of Deutsche Telekom, said: “We need easy communication. The ease-of-use is the key to success.”
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Broadband access has become important policy issue in European Union (EU), said Andrew Houghton, representing Gen. Directorate of EU’s Information Society. He said EU was trying to be “strictly unbiased” about certain access technology in its efforts to promote information society via its research programs: “We have to be technology neutral.” However, Claus said state interference with broadband services market, including subsidies for building broadband infrastructure, wasn’t necessary. Houghton said: “Where markets don’t work, subsidies to develop the infrastructure make sense.”
“Broadband will be the engine to promote the European economy,” European Telecom Network Operators’ Assn. (ETNO) Dir. Michael Bartholomew said. However, he said, “regulatory coherence across Europe” is required for successful introduction of broadband services. Some speakers said peer- to-peer services were among potentially lucrative services of future, but Claus said there currently was no mass market demand for symmetrical infrastructure to enable peer-to-peer distribution of videos: “If there is a demand for symmetrical services, we can provide it via SDSL.”
Integration of fixed and mobile networks was another topic at summit. “Fixed mobile integration will [become] more and more necessary” in future, EURESCOM Dir. Claudio Carrelli said. He said such integration would be basis for multimedia services in future, which “make use of the abundant bandwidth in the telecom networks.” However, Carrelli warned against overrating importance of bandwidth: “The value is not in the megabytes, the value is in the service.” He said it was necessary to focus on human needs in developing advanced technologies: “Technologies will have success if it improves the quality of life and is easy to use.”
Convergence of software and telecom networks was necessary for new network technologies to increase productivity and create revenue, Cisco Systems’ Kurt Dahm said. Intel Gen. Mgr. Shane Wall said improved bandwidth and more advanced chips would make multimedia services on mobile devices “much richer than today.”