High-speed Internet access needed to revitalise Europe's rural regions

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:08:41 -0500

Connecting the 30 per cent of the EU's rural population that has no high speed Internet access should be a priority for achieving "broadband for all" by 2010, the European Commission said today. Improved Internet connectivity is a powerful tool to stimulate swift economic recovery. The Commission has now outlined how it would use its own support programmes to boost Internet networks and services in rural areas, and called on EU Member States to do the same. Article

3 pledges 14.4Mbps in major UK cities by 2010

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 11:07:49 -0500

In an effort to gain subscriber attention, 3UK has outlined plans to provide customers in London and other major metropolitan areas access to mobile broadband speeds up to 14.4Mbps by Q3/2010. As an interim, the company has hinted speeds of up to 7.2Mbps could become available to 98 per cent of the UK population by mid-next year.

The company, which has gambled its reputation on its 3G capabilities, claims it has already completed a rollout to give more than 95 per cent of the UK's population access to 3.6Mbps using HSDPA. However, the company was unable to confirm when customers living in more rural areas would have access to these speeds.

It would appear the push to provide higher speeds in more areas is part of the company's strategy to broaden the use of 3G services helped by lower-cost handsets. "We need handsets at a price point that enable us to open that market up", said Kevin Russell, CEO of 3 UK. This was illustrated by the company's announcement of the new INQ handset last week that is tailored for use with the social networking site Facebook and Windows live, etc.

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Report: 166 commercial HSDPA networks worldwide

Rural Areas

High-speed Internet access needed to revitalise Europe's rural regions

3 pledges 14.4Mbps in major UK cities by 2010