Luxembourg is a leader in superfast broadband

Point Topic study shows Europe is half-way to “digital heaven” […]

December 5, 2012

Point Topic study shows Europe is half-way to “digital heaven”

One of the European Union’s most ambitious targets is to make sure that all its citizens can get access to superfast broadband at home, if they choose, by 2020.  A new study by broadband specialists Point Topic shows Luxembourg is now 75% towards achieving that aim. This means that 75% of Luxembourg homes can subscribe to superfast broadband services delivering at least 30Mbps (megabits per second) of bandwidth.

Luxembourg’s superfast broadband coverage is in fact the fourth highest in Europe, and it is only exceeded by countries with a much lower percentage of rural homes.  The country achieves this level through the combination of an extensive cable TV network and above-average coverage by FTTP (fibre-to-the-premises).

The report showing  where Luxembourg stands has been produced for DG Connect, the department of the European Commission which is responsible for its “Digital Agenda” strategy.  The purpose of the Digital Agenda is to harness the internet and other digital technologies to drive sustainable economic growth.  Neelie Kroes, the Commission vice-president responsible, wants to see €7 billion earmarked for EU investments in broadband to help reach Digital Agenda targets, which in turn is meant to draw in private funds of many times that amount.

“This study gives us the best view so far of where action is needed on broadband coverage,” says Neelie Kroes.  “It will help to guide decisions on where EU and private money can be invested to provide the best long-term return for taxpayers and investors such as pension funds.”

Called Broadband Coverage in Europe in 2011, the new study shows that 100% of the homes in Luxembourg can now get basic broadband, meaning services offering at least 144kbps (kilobits per second), if they want to subscribe.  75% can already get superfast broadband, also known as NGA, for Next Generation Access.  Looking at the 29 study countries as a whole (all 27 members of the EU, plus Norway and Iceland), 96% can already get basic broadband and over 50% – half way to the “digital heaven” target for 2020 – can get superfast.

Basic broadband is fairly widespread now, only three EU countries have less than 90% coverage.  But there are huge variations in superfast availability both internationally and within countries. As far as Luxembourg is concerned, its superfast broadband coverage is close to 90% in the towns and suburbs but the average is brought down because the cable TV and FTTP networks do not reach into rural areas.

The study also shows how competing technologies are sharing out the superfast broadband market as illustrated on the chart.  In Luxembourg, Docsis 3 broadband over the cable TV network is the most important superfast technology with 64% coverage.  This reflects the situation across Europe as a whole where Docsis 3 also leads on 37%.  FTTP is well above average with 23% coverage compared with an EU-wide figure of 12%.  But VDSL, which provides superfast speeds over the telephone network, is not in use in Luxembourg although it has 21% coverage in Europe as a whole.

“When we add the different superfast technologies together we have to take account of the overlap,” explains Tim Johnson, who led the project as Point Topic’s Chief Analyst.  “This is how we get to coverage of 75% in Luxembourg.”  The problem is that the superfast operators compete to serve the richer and more densely populated areas in each country, leaving others underserved.  “Hopefully this project will give policy-makers some of the information they need to start addressing that problem,” says Johnson.

Comparison of broadband coverage in Luxembourg with the European Union

Key to technologies
DSL – provides broadband speeds up to 24 megabits per second over the telephone network
VDSL (Very-fast DSL) – provides superfast speeds (30Mbps or more) over the telephone network
FTTP (fibre-to-the-premises) – delivers the fastest possible broadband over optical fibre to apartment blocks or all the way to individual homes
WiMAX – the up-to-date standard for broadband over wireless links to fixed aerials
Standard cable – provides broadband over cable TV networks using older standards
Docsis 3 cable – the up-to-date standard for providing superfast broadband over cable TV networks
HSPA – the up-to-date standard for mobile broadband over 3G networks
LTE – the new standard for fourth-generation (4G) mobile broadband
Satellite – two-way broadband delivered over the newest satellites using KA-Band technology
Standard combination – shows the combined coverage of all the fixed-line broadband technologies
NGA combination – shows the combined c overage of all the fixed-line superfast broadband technologies (VDSL, FTTP and Docsis 3)

 

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