Europe in Danger of Losing Out on Internet, Mobile Competition, EC Report Says
Europe will lose its competitive edge in broadband and mobile phones without a new digital agenda, the European Commission said Tuesday. Its digital competitiveness report assessed how the i2010 plan, to give the region the world’s most competitive knowledge-based economy, has fared since it was adopted in 2005 and what policies are needed beyond next year.
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ICT policies the past four years have “confirmed their role as a major driver” of European economic and social modernization, and broadband is a crucial part of Europe’s economic recovery plan, the EC said. Among other success stories, the percentage of Europeans who are regular Internet users rose to 56 percent last year from 43 percent in 2005, it said. Europe became the largest world broadband market, with high-speed access available to 93 percent of the population of the EU25 states, up from 87 percent in 2005, the EC said. Europe is the leader in handset penetration at 119 percent of the population, up from 84 percent in 2004, it said.
The future of the Internet rests with young people, the EC said. But they have a very different attitude from older users about paying for services, it said. Europeans aren’t taking full advantage of their own digital content because American content and online shops have essentially “cornered the market,” the EC said. Europe needs business models that attract the next generation of users while ensuring that creators are paid, it said.
Europe lags behind Japan and South Korea in high-speed fiber networks, and its mobile communications success hasn’t spilled over into wireless broadband, the EC said. Europe is also being sidelined on Internet services and applications as the U.S. dominates the new interactive Web, particularly blogs and social networks, it said. Europe needs a new digital agenda, it said.
The EC issued a questionnaire seeking comments in nine areas, including how to use ICT to drive economic recovery, how the technologies can help the environment and how to increase ICT research and innovation. The EC also wants suggestions on how best to create a completely connected economy, how to make the digital single market stronger and how to use Web 2.0 tools and services to encourage more creativity, content production and services. Other questions are how the Internet can be used to make public services more accessible to all and how to put Europe’s storehouses of cultural knowledge online. The EC also asked how the EU can increase its weight internationally on Web and information society issues. Comments are due Oct. 9.
The report confirms the “urgent need” for increased bandwidth and network capacity, said Director Michael Bartholomew of the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association. The priority now must be to create the right conditions for large-scale private investment in next-generation access networks, where Europe is lagging, he said.