Advanced Television

EU plans fast broadband meeting with CEOs

February 15, 2011

Heads of telecommunications and Internet companies will gather in Brussels in March and July to discuss plans to provide all European Union citizens with fast broadband by 2020, a spokesman for EU Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes has stated.

“I can confirm that Kroes has invited CEOs from the companies in the telecoms networks, telecoms equipment and Internet content sectors to a summit meeting in Brussels on March 3rd,” Kroes’ spokesman Jonathan Todd said. “The meeting is prompted by her concern that present investment trends will not meet the 2020 broadband objectives.”

He said the participants would discuss a “holistic” approach to business models, technology and regulation, and that there would be a chief executive-led Industry Task Force to formulate solutions that would be confirmed at a second CEO summit in July.

Kroes call comes as Manuel Kohnstamm, Cable Europe’s President, told delegates at the Cable Congress that by 2020, he expected more than 55 per cent of European households to have access to at least 100Mb services from cable.

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