Telecompaper

EU broadband penetration rose to 110.5 million users or 22.5 percent of the population in September 2008, according to industry association ECTA's latest Broadband Scorecard. This represents an increase of 9 percent over six months and 20 percent from a year earlier. The highest penetration rates were recorded in Denmark (37.5%) and Netherlands (36.3%) followed by Sweden, Finland and the UK. The lowest penetration rates at just above 10 percent were recorded in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia. The highest growth rates over the full year were seen in Greece, Cyprus and Malta. Additional competitive impetus from local loop unbundling was particularly pronounced in Greece and Cyprus. Growth rates began to slow in several of the leading countries including Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands and the UK, suggesting market maturity. Some countries with lower absolute take-up levels also experienced slow growth including Spain, Italy and Austria. Fibre penetration was 0.3 percent on average across Europe. However some countries had significantly higher fibre penetration including Sweden (5.6% of the population) and Estonia (4.9%) and Lithuania (4.2%). Incumbents retained 50 percent of the total retail broadband market, or 45 percent if resale is excluded. The source of most competition in the EU is unbundling of the local loop (44% of all lines supplied by competitors), followed by cable and other parallel infrastructures (36%) with resale and 'bitstream' access accounting for the remainder.