The European Union has met or will soon meet most of its existing Digital Agenda targets, but still has work to do on expanding access to faster broadband, e-government services and cross-border e-commerce. According to the latest Scorecard from the European Commission, the EU has met its targets for 2015 already for regular internet usage (75% of people at least once a week in 2014, 60% of disadvantaged groups), online shopping (50% in 2014), basic broadband availability (97% coverage via fixed networks, 79% via 4G) and completing e-government forms (25% in 2014).
The statistics in the latest Scorecard were mainly updated for connectivity, while the other subjects are similar to figures released in January this year. The latest data shows that more progress is needed in bringing next-generation broadband to rural areas. While services of 30 Mbps or higher are now available to 68 percent of EU residents (up 6 points in 2014), these are mainly concentrated in cities, where cable networks are available. The official target is for 100 percent coverage of 30 Mbps services by 2020. For the next target of 100 Mbps or higher, only 9 percent of EU residents subscribed to these speeds in 2014.
Among its other targets, the EU has also failed to reach agreement on bringing roaming prices down to national levels, encouraging more small businesses to start sales online (14.5% in 2014 vs target of 33% in 2015) and furthering the use of cross-border e-commerce (15% in 2014 vs target 20% in 2015). Use of e-government services is also growing more slowly than e-commerce, at 47 percent of residents in 2014 versus a target of over 50% in 2015.
The European Commission said its recently announced Digital Single Market strategy can help the EU overcome some of delays in reaching its targets. The EU Council will discuss the proposals for the Digital Single Market at its next meeting 25 June.
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Quelle/Source: Telecompaper, 18.06.2015
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