Regional - Broadband - Overview of Europe, Africa, Middle East - 2005

Synopsis

This report was archived in June 2006. Broadband will create a new economy sector worth $70 billion in revenue by 2015. By late 2005, broadband subscribers in EMEA will have passed 50 million and, with the majority of Internet connections still being narrowband, future growth will be enormous. Many Western Europe countries are amongst the world leaders in rolling out broadband infrastructure, with the incumbents seeming to be realise that their future lies in moving with technology and demand. This is in sharp contrast to the US experience over the past few years where the incumbent telcos have deferred infrastructure upgrades as a way of blackmailing the government into allowing them to retain the monopoly positions. Africa and the Middle East started to move into broadband later than the developed countries, but are presently showing rapid growth. The major technology in the region is DSL although, in Africa, wireless access technologies are increasingly being used as a substitute for poor or non-existing fixed-line infrastructures.