The European Union promises universal broadband by 2013.

MAY 20, 2010 • The European Union has pledged that 50% of European households will have broadband speeds of 30Mbps by 2020. As part of the EU’s five year plan for the digital economy, universal broadband coverage is set for 2013. The EU estimates that nearly a third of Europeans have never used the internet and only 1% had access to fiber-based high-speed networks.  The plan is for EU governments are expected to double their annual spending on broadband research and development to €11 billion ($13.4 billion) by 2020.

Impact: Broadband penetration is a key driver in the usage of online applications.  However, the actual speed of the broadband connection varies greatly and we are finding it makes a huge difference in the usage of products like online games.  Korea has the highest spending per capita on online games and also the fastest broadband speed with average speeds of about 15 Mbps.  In DFC tracking we have seen significant downloads coming from countries like Romania.  Surprisingly (or not so surprisingly given our usage tracking) Romania has the fastest broadband speeds in Europe with speeds approaching that of places like Japan and Hong Kong.  Right now slower broadband speeds in North America and Western Europe have limited consumer acceptance of digital distribution.  Increasing broadband speed to 30 Mbps would allow for almost seamless digital distribution.