BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The latest ECTA scorecard confirms that the 10 new EU member states now have 1 million broadband connections between them.

For the EU as a whole broadband usage had increased by a half in the first 3 quarters of 2003 to 33m this quarter, as consumers have responded to the steadily growing choice of offerings available from entrants in the market. Governments and regulators are therefore being rewarded for the investments they have made in creating a level playing field.

Hungary boasts the largest total number of broadband connections among the new member states, but Estonia has the highest level of penetration. In several member states cable and other networks play a substantial role in the market, and it will be interesting to track whether the incumbent DSL services will subsequently emerge as dominant as they are doing in the rest of the EU.

In the EU-25, there have been positive developments in the wholesale broadband access market and this is now leading to growth at the LLU rung of the “investment ladder”.

Looked at more broadly, however, the incumbents still retain a stranglehold over the provision of fast Internet access. Despite the rise in unbundling, the proportion of total connections provisioned by incumbents has remained unchanged. This is because cable TV (and other alternative infrastructures) has declined in importance, reflecting the fact that markets where cable is present grew quickly early on and are now more mature. Indeed, growth rates in the EU’s leading countries is now tailing off at levels much lower than those achieved in other countries.

European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA)