Broadband prices drop in Europe
April 17, 2009 at 2:09 pm
There was good news to come out of the European broadband market recently with the announcement by the European Commission in its new report that broadband prices are falling across the continent.
The EC looked into all different types of broadband across Europe to find out what the general state of affairs looked like, and took into account fibre optic, DSL and cable broadband services.
Broadband services were surveyed for a whole year across the continent, and some huge drops in price were recorded. Amongst the findings were:
- Broadband services with speeds of between 1Mbps and 2Mbps dropped in price by 19% over the course of the year, going from €38.02 to €31.
- Services between 2Mbps and 4Mbps dropped by 29%.
- The higher-end speeds between 4Mbps and 8Mbps dropped by 4%.
- Prices went up for low-speed broadband.
Despite the drops in prices across Europe, the EC has been quick to point out that this does not mean the quality is suffering as a result. On the contrary, due to the high competition in the sector, the services have got better as speeds have gone up.
Viviane Reding, the EU telecoms minister, said that “the right combination of competition between companies and regulation” has led to lower prices and higher speeds.
The report also found that 79% of countries in the EU enjoy speeds over 2Mpbs. However, it also highlighted differences between countries in the prices of broadband that are being received, and the report stated that there should be a single market created in order to set the standard across the continent.
