European broadband access up 16% in six months

Broadband penetration is gathering momentum across Europe, increasing 16 per cent in the six months to March, according to a new survey by the European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA).

The ECTA research found that high-speed broadband home access rose from 73 million to 84 million among the EU's 15 oldest member states.

Those figures reflect the impact of newcomers on the continent's broadband market, says ECTA, which lobbies for the disintegration of telecom monopolies throughout Europe.

"Success in many of the high ranking countries in Europe can be attributed partly to local loop unbundling - the process whereby competitors rent the last mile from the national telecoms incumbent and offer their own broadband services to consumers," ECTA said in a statement.

The group is calling for the EU to give national regulators the right to split networks and services divisions of operators wherever it deems that barriers to entering the market are unfairly high, a move that the European Commission is currently weighing up.

About 20 different broadband providers are currently operating in the UK and figures released by the Office for National Statistics show that 61 per cent of all British homes now have a high-speed broadband connection.