Data autobahn

In many areas within Europe watching high definition movies over the internet or downloading massive files in mere seconds has become a reality thanks to technology like fiber-optic cables.

But many households are excluded from this data autobahn – the technology is just not there yet. Members of the Fiber to the Home Council Europe, which represents companies such as internet service providers, met in Lisbon on February 25 and requested for European governments to push towards an implementation of new technologies.

Europe behind Asia and the US

According to Hartwig Tauber, director general of the organization the continent is lagging behind Asia and the United States.

"Fiber is more than just an infrastructure, it is an enabler for new services and an enhancer of existing services,“ said Tauber.

Slower copper wires continue to be standard issue when it comes to linking most homes and the neighborhood telecommunications network. Tauber put that down to the fact that most European governments lack ambition compared with some of their counterparts in Asia, which are pushing for the installation of connections with hundreds of times as much capacity.

"That could transform how we use the internet," he added.

Certainly, the call is also about money: Most of the speakers at the conference represented news or entertainment companies that use the internet to get their content out to users. However, the main argument of the organizers for encouraging the spread of fiber-optic connections is to give a boost to services that carry considerable benefits for the public, such as distance learning and health care, as well as boosting telecommuting.

Fiber to the Home Council president Karel Helsen said that in some countries telecommunications companies have started their own services in areas such as health and education. Additionally, governments are using money to stimulate development in the industry.

Lithuania ahead of European standard

But according to the internet businesses the main problem remains the lack of a clear regulatory framework at the European level. The European Commission has promised to provide this but further delays in drafting the regulations seem to have been one reason why the commissioner responsible did not address the conference, instead sending a lower-level official.

Despite all this, there has been striking progress in some countries. Just in the past couple of years, Lithuania has leapfrogged Scandinavian countries to become the nation with the highest penetration rate of fiber cables. And in the run-up to the conference, host Portugal went on a cable-laying spree that resulted in more than two million homes can now be connected to fiber-optics.

Author: Alison Roberts (hmr)
Editor: Mark Mattox