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SEVERAL RECENT EU COMMISSION reports, as well as speeches by the enterprise and information commissioner, have summed up progress towards 'the most dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world' instituted as a target for 2010 by the Lisbon summit of three years ago. They also point the way forward to achieving the target and the one word which recurs is 'broadband'. In 'Accelerating Broadband in Europe', a speech introducing a 'Broadband Day' in Brussels, Commissioner Erkki Liikanen stated 'Broadband will change the use of the Internet. It will deliver most of its economic and social benefits through e-commerce, e-learning, health care, e-government, teleworking, video conferencing and entertainment, in the form of increased productivity and innovation, and better products and services'. 'Electronic Communications : the Road to the Knowledge Economy' is a Commission document which also stresses the importance of broadband 'Dial-up may be sufficient to send e-mails and download small documents, but is not fast enough for large audio or video files. High-speed and permanent connections ("broadband") allow the immediate transmission of large volumes of data, changing the overall presentation of the Internet'. It claims that the figure of 10.8 million broadband connections in the EU from October 2002 had already grown to 12 million by last January. |
Definition of broadbandBroadband is a general term used to describe high-speed networking services. By using a wider band of frequencies, information can be transferred more quickly from the internet to your computer. Connection speed is measured in kbps (kilobits per second) and megabits per second (mbps). The Department for Trade & Industry's (DTI) current definition is: 'We would define higher bandwidth networks as more than 384 kilobits per second, current generation broadband as two megabits and above, and next generation broadband as ten megabits and above'. | |
93% of EU schools are now estimated to be connected to the internet with 19% on ADSL and 6% having cable modem connection. While about half of all teachers received internet training in 2002, in the wider work force only 29% had received any computer tuition, a far lower percentage than those using computers at work. The reports also identify government (basic services online but more interactivity needed) and health (broadband development critical) as key areas for the exploitation of the new technology. The 'eEurope2005 Action Plan' will now call on governments to modernise public services while creating 'an inclusive information society for all of Europe's citizens'.
Reports , speeches and web pages mentioned on this page are available at :
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'Accelerating Broadband in Europe': |
http://europa.eu.int/rapid/cgi/rapcgi.ksh? |
THE CURRENT HOLDERS of the EU Presidency, Greece, have set up an internet facility to let Europeans record their views on a number of issues affecting the Union. Part of the Presidency web site, the home page asks the user to pick from topics such as 'The EU's rôle in the world' and 'Towards an effective drug policy in the EU'. After a short introduction about the subject a series of multiple choice questions follow in which you must decide the statement that most closely resembles your own opinion.
At the end your answers are compared to the percentages of total answers voting for each alternative. When the European Review answered the questions most people thought that the EU was 'Moving in the right direction' but that their own country was heading the opposite way.
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