Divided Europe: Motorola reveals nations split over broadband

June 29, 2006 – Motorola  today published the results of an independent research report that highlights the growth of the digital home across Europe.

The report reveals changing dynamics in the home broadband market and has unearthed varying degrees of consumer awareness, take-up and demand amongst different countries. 2,500 respondents were surveyed across, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.

“The regional variations demonstrate the necessity for Network operators to now pay closer attention to new consumer trends and ensure smarter, faster and more sophisticated infrastructures are in place to support growing consumer demands,’ said Karl Elliott, marketing director, Motorola Connected Home Solutions EMEA.

In countries such as Italy, Spain and France, operators have spurred adoption by bundling broadband with other services such as voice and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), while the UK lags behind the rest of the continent in awareness, uptake and desire for a number of broadband applications.

”Driven by falling prices and new services, the European broadband market continues to grow at breakneck pace. In total Europe added 20 million new broadband households last year, twice as many as were added in America in 2005. By the end of the decade we project that there will be 134 million broadband subscriptions in Europe, representing more than 61 per cent of all households in the region. This will create a fertile ground for selling value added services to connected consumers,” said Martin Olausson, Senior Analyst at research firm Strategy Analytics.