European broadband speeds up

Broadband connections in Europe are much faster than one year ago, the European Commission has found.

According to the EC figures, in July, 29 per cent of EU broadband lines had speeds of at least 10Mbps – almost double the 15 per cent figure for the same month last year.

Mobile broadband has grown 45 per cent year on year, with six mobile broadband access devices, such as dongles, per 100 people.

However, the Commission says there is still a long road ahead before EU reaches its targets of giving every European access to basic broadband by 2013, and fast or ‘ultra fast’ broadband by 2020.

Neelie Kroes, commission vice-president for the EC’s Digital Agenda, said: "Fast broadband is digital oxygen, essential for Europe’s prosperity and well-being. Take up and available speeds are improving, but we need to do more to reach our very fast broadband targets. In particular, we need urgent agreement on our proposal to ensure radio spectrum is available for mobile broadband, for which demand is growing very fast."