European Broadband Trends 2007

The European broadband market is growing rapidly. At the end of Q2 2007, there were close to 100 million broadband subscribers in Europe. The five largest markets -- the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy -- also experienced robust growth over the past five years. All five countries now have a per-capita penetration rate of higher than 15 percent.

Recent trends in dynamic markets such as the UK and France indicate future directions of the overall European market. Faced with a competitive broadband market and increasing demand, service providers are aggressively shifting their strategies from basic-broadband access to value-added services.

> LLU (local loop unbundling) was a major driver for competition in the UK.

Thanks to this, several new market entrants, including Carphone Warehouse, Sky and Orange UK, are now giving away broadband access for free to differentiate their core service offerings. In a little over a year, Sky signed up more than one million subscribers.

Value-Added Services

In its most recent quarterly financial report, BT disclosed that it had over 300,000 customers for its Broadband Digital Vault service, which provides secure online digital storage.

To further enhance its VAS portfolio, BT recently announced a potential partnership with Google and FON, a large hotspot community operator; plans to add Sony's PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable to its network, enabling video and voice-call capabilities; and engagements with more than 600 startups globally for new innovations.

British Telecom has had some early success with several such offerings. BT noted that its Home IT Advisor service (a digital home management and support service) had 40,000 customers as of May 2007.

Via E-Commerce Times

'Digital Dividend' Plan

Ofcom has released details of its plans for awarding the spectrum that will be freed up by the switch to digital TV in 2012.

Ed Richards, CEO of Ofcom, said in a statement: "The digital-dividend will be one of the most significant and valuable spectrum releases in the UK for 20 years. Our approach is designed to maximise these considerable benefits for UK citizens and consumers as a whole.

"We can expect the benefits of the digital dividend to include more choice, fresh competition and technological innovation."

The regulator said it has identified several potential uses for the latest spectrum windfall -- which it believes will add £5bn to £10bn to the UK economy over a 20-year period -- including high-speed mobile broadband, mobile TV and local TV stations.

Via BusinessWeek