Europeans face a “geographic lottery” on broadband prices,...
Europeans face a “geographic lottery” on broadband prices, speed and range of choices, said the European Commission Tuesday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1iwVPEN). Four studies found no pattern or coherence in EU broadband markets, said the EC. Consumers are also…
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baffled by the varying information operators provide, which limits their ability to choose the right services for them, it said. Prices for the most common broadband connections can be as much as four times higher in some EU countries, even when purchasing power is taken into account, the EC said. Sixty-six percent of people don’t know what Internet speed they've signed up for, and on average, they get only 75 percent of the speed they subscribe to, it said. Successive waves of telecom sector reform have helped change the way services are delivered in the EU, but the industry still runs largely on the basis of 28 national markets, the EC said. The European Parliament votes next week on EC plans for a connected continent, which will give consumers more transparency, rights and services, it said. The EC has a new portal for broadband-related information (http://bit.ly/1iwW7ve).