European Commission Seeks $13 Billion in Broadband and Related Investments

"The European Commission will propose investing €9.2 billion ($12.8 billion) in faster broadband infrastructure and services across the European Union.

"But keep in mind that the EU itself estimates the cost to do so across the EU at about €270 billion ($375 billion). McKinsey, the consulting firm, has estimated it could cost €300 billion ($421 billion) across the EU.

"The proposed spending, even if the cost of rural infrastructure were identical to urban infrastructure, would affect no more than two percent to three percent of the region.

"The plan is “partly” aimed at stimulating further investment in rural broadband, which would then put pressure on service providers to match those speeds in urban areas. In some ways, the effort can be compared to the “broadband stimulus” funding in the U.S. market, possibly similar in some ways to the GigU initiative. GigU will attempt to build 1-Gbps networks around universities, and then hopefully stimulate new applications that can create consumer demand and revenue for new applications...

"The EU Commission wants broadband connections of 30 megabits a second to be available to all 500 million EU residents by 2020."

TMCnet