In a recent speech given to students at Erasmus University, Neelie Kroes issued a rallying call to Europe, imploring its citizens to build a new state, one founded on digital technology that can effectively drive society forward: lifting productivity, connecting people and improving daily life. Ms. Kroes wants us to leave the digital dark ages behind and create Europe 3.0.
As the vice president of the European Commission responsible for its digital agenda, it’s no surprise that Ms. Kroes is such a vocal advocate for universal broadband and access rights for all. In her speech, Ms. Kroes goes on to discuss how society will benefit by taking the Internet to everyone. These benefits include the creation of millions of jobs, the development of an inclusive society and a reduction in our environmental impact.
Ms. Kroes concludes her speech by stating that digital technology is the best solution left to solving our problems.
In many respects, I share Ms. Kroes’ views. Technology now exists that has the ability to revolutionise our networks, significantly increasing business opportunities, healthcare solutions, communication tools and improving many other areas of our lives. But how far are we from pulling the ‘digital trigger’ and achieving Europe 3.0?
One of the keys to achieving this is an increase in FTTH deployments, or at least fiber as close to the home as possible. Earlier this year, the FTTH Council presented its latest findings on the state of fiber rollouts for G-20 countries. The results weren’t inspiring, particularly for European countries that face significant challenges in trying to replace legacy access technologies, such as copper. Of the countries listed, only Lithuania and Norway had penetration rates over 10%. Major European nations such as the UK and Germany had less than 1% penetration.
To increase these figures, Europe’s access networks need to be addressed and this is where cost becomes an issue. Significant investment needs to be made if Europe 3.0 is to be achieved and it is here that the dialogue becomes more complex. There already exist a number of solutions that would achieve Ms. Kroes’ ambitions, but much of this technology is in its infancy and there are a number of hurdles to overcome before mass adoption can be considered. For more on this topic, please see Roy Rubenstein’s detailed article on the challenges of bringing new access technologies to market.
In addition to the technology required to realise Europe 3.0, there also needs to be a mass cultural shift, one that sees society actively embrace online tools. In an earlier post, I discussed the challenges being faced in the UK to achieve this. Many of these obstacles are also being faced in other European nations.
As such, there is no clear migration path to Europe 3.0, but I strongly believe that Ms. Kroes is moving in the right direction and that with our support we have turned our backs on the digital dark ages and taken a step towards digital enlightenment.
What do you think to Ms. Kroes’ digital agenda? Do you believe that Europe 3.0 is about to dawn? What are the major obstacles we have to overcome? I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this one.
Read more about the latest access technologies here.