European homes now have 100 percent broadband coverage

[A Guy]

Satellite-based Internet access has reached the last 0.6 percent of homes that copper wires and mobile networks didn't, the European Commission announces.

Every citizen in the European Union now has broadband Internet access at home, a goal the European Commission said it reached before its year-end deadline.

Pushing the needle all the way to 100 percent is satellite-based Internet access, which reached the 0.6 percent of homes that wired connections and mobile networks couldn't reach, the EC announced Thursday. DSL, cable TV, and fiber-optic lines reach 96.1 percent, and mobile networks reach 99.4 percent.

Source

A Guy

 

[jadinolf]

Sounds great and my broadband is a little faster than dial up.

 

[theveterans]

A lot of areas in the US really have slow broadband. If faster connections are available, ISPs charge exorbitant prices for that tier which basically defeats the purpose of providing faster internet in those areas.

 

[wds7]

Cool .... Good news for them ... But ..:

What the hell wrong with USA .... Slow and darmmmm expensive ... makes me want to move ..

 

[severedsolo]

Well thats a lie. Britain has 80% coverage. Unless they count broadband as a different speed to us

 

[SIW2]

It isn't all that fast in most places, but "good enough" for most people in Uk, it seems.

 

[z3r010]

I wish they would hurry up with fibre here before my ISP EOL's my bonded line

 

[boohbah]

its not all its cracked up to be. :devil2:

 

[tinmar49]

How much doe's a broadband satellite connection cost? Would it's use attract the unwelcome attentions of USAF drones?

 

[boohbah]

you can avoid the drones if you use tinfoil hats when online

 

[tinmar49]

Looks like a Cornish tin miner to me.

 

[Worker]

Chummers; If what I'm being told is true, the fact that it's the folks who are being counted as 'covered' by satellite Net service and the kind of costs involved in receiving it is working against the argument that they're actually covered. I know a lot of people in Australia who live outside of the core NSW/Sydney area (say, in the 85-90 per cent of the continent that's got people spread out like thin buttered toast) who have sworn off the Net on a monthly basis because satellite-based Internet service, at least there, is insanely expensive, or at least something comparable to landline ADSL in terms of speed. If we're talking satellite Net coverage in rural Hungary or Switzerland, we're talking rural/farming folks who I suspect would either have little interest in and/or be able to afford that kind of money for any one monthly product or service. -Worker.

 

[A Guy]

All the story says is everyone has broadband access at home. Not that they have it, or could begin to afford it

A Guy

 

[soho1]

Guy, nice post. Glad to see social commentary in the forums like this. Hey, how does this forum stay funded? Can I make a donation?

 

[A Guy]

There is no longer any way to donate. The forum is funded by ads that are seen by people who are not members, or are not signed in. Just donate your help if you can

A Guy

 

[Worker]

All the story says is everyone has broadband access at home. Not that they have it, or could begin to afford it

A Guy

A Guy; Aouf, sorry. ^_^ I had thought the idea was that the EU was boasting that folks had uber coverage; I wasn't thinking deep enough towards thinking that we agreed the boast was stretching their credibility anyway. It's all good. I think to be fair that the only way for there to be a _real_ 'absolute' degree of access is, of course, to have it as both reliable and affordable (the latter being that a reasonable monthly access plan and fee would be so accessible); perhaps even like the last several years' expanding of the 'pay as you go' cellphone plan. Of course, it's not as simple as having a phone you tag around and activate with a keypad. That said, I think it'd be better for the aforementioned 'low use' customer who only makes limited use of a given amount of Net access, UL/DL bandwidth and time, to not be saddled with a monthly plan (and fee) they'd be using only a small amount of their 'maximum' allotment. The other part is providing reliable technology and the infrastructure to support it. I suspect there are a lot of places (again, the rural parts of Europe, which aren't that small put together as a whole, for example) where it's not unreasonable to expect basic phone service to be intermittent regularly (even in parts of the Appalachians, coal-mining semi-rural country in the United States, it's very common to find rural families with satellite/wireless telephone service as opposed to hardwired landlines). If we're thinking of the same kind of ADSL I have, there'd need to be enough of a basic groundwired telephone system for it. -Worker.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
The last time I checked WALES was still a member of the EU - well very recently (i.e last week) I was visiting some mates just outside SWANSEA (not exactly a tiny city) and the broadband coverage was poor to non existent -- this was around 5 - 7KM from the City Centre -- and Swansea also has a HUGE university there (actually quite a good one too).

There's plans for fibre optic - some areas around Swansea are mountainous so coverage would be bad anyway without cable but these won't be ready for a while yet --- where on Earth does the EU get its statistics from - or have they been watching last seasons "House of Lies" too much.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[z3r010]

Obviously the EU makes up it's statistics just like it's financial accounts, however if you read the article the coverage included broadband via satellite which covers the full EU (even Wales).

 

[boohbah]

Looks like a Cornish tin miner to me.

they no longer exist ,when the tin mines dried up, we made pasties out of them and sold them to the tourists .
although one or two escaped and can be seen dressed as fishermen trying to blend in with the locals

 

[tinmar49]

My cousin lives about 5 miles from the centre of Basingstoke in Hampshire and gets less than 2m bits broadband at best, and that is not unusual for the UK.