Brussels declares war on web virgins

would you think of the children (and the elderly)

it seems to me that roughly 30% of Europeans are either too old or too young to know how (or to care) to use the interwebs, so why Brussels wants to push this down their throats exactly ??

on the old adage that statistics don't mean anything, I am really "suspicious" when I see Internet penetration in a country/region above two/thirds

I thought the virgins

would already have internet (and L€€t $KiLLz at WoW)

Paris (because you don't have an icon for Brussels)

dial up

Lots of people who are not in a major town or city are on dial up. Many exchanges in fairly large Spanish villages have not been upgraded to ADSL, companies like Telefonica do not see a profit in it so there is no need to divert funding from Formula 1 advertising.

My folks have a 3g stick and take their laptop and drive to somewhere i found them on a coverage map and do all their internet related stuff in the 2 hours of battery they are afforded.

Until Telcos are given something more than just market forces to encourage them to invest properly, this kind of hot air is meaningless from Brussels.

30 Mbps or faster ... what for ?

"Everyone, young and old, irrespective of social background, is entitled to the knowledge and skills they need to be part of the digital era since commerce, public, social and health services, learning and political life is increasingly moving online. ...So the target is for all Europeans to have access to 30 Mbps or faster services by 2020"

... does any of that make you need 30Mbps or faster ? Or are they asked to sell it ?

Erm

"So the target is for all Europeans to have access to 30 Mbps or faster services by 2020"

So let me get this right, that's been taken to mean Europe wants to force everyone to get online? Why is it seen as a bad thing that they want to provide the ability to access high-speed services to the whole of Europe? I fully agree that it's probably a silly target that seems unworkable, but turning it into a "bloody Brussels forcing stuff down our throats" Euro-sceptic wank-off seems a bit silly.

Let's say that there's a mystical food generator that allows the creation of any food immediately, and for free:

"So the target is for all Europeans to have access to a food generator by 2020"

You might want to continue making your own food, or farming cows, and you can make that choice, but having the ability to make that choice isn't a bad thing.

Trust and Confidence

Before anyone can have trust and confidence in the privacy/integrity/security of UK internet services, the UK Government must put the criminals on BT's board of directors in prison.

IT & Productivity

"I think that is a very tendentious statement. In my, sadly limited, experience ICT does little to add to 'productivity growth" - in my world at least. Who and how is "productivity" measured."

Indeed ITC creates a lot of waste. On the other hand, it speeds up plenty of processes in real-world sectors like manufacturing and R&D. Just look at how quickly companies can now change car and aircraft designs. Look at their highly efficient logistics chains and minimal inventory levels. Or just-in-time manufacturing.

The finance sector would be totally different w/o modern ITC. Whether they are always positively contributing, I have some doubts. But overall, ITC has increased real wealth considerably. Companies don't spend so much money on PCs, SAP and hardware for nothing.

I find it positive that the EU is concerned about broadband access, as this is very important for economic, social and cultural reasons. Just think of your ability to search for a job, use wikipedia, read the news, work from your home etc etc.

But "EU" is synonymous with Louis XIV to many of those Highly Rational Englishmen, so all they say is by default BAD.

Those rational people also claim the EU is not elected, which is patently untrue, as there IS a european parliament, who have teeth indeed.

made up numbers, hyperbole or...?

This claim: "30 per cent of Europeans have never used the net at all" seems to be crying out for a rational analysis.

This implies 1 in 3 people in Europe have never used the internet for anything in their life. I find that very hard to believe unless there are huge regions where there is no internet access at all (likely). Combatting that is not the same as producing high speed broadband everywhere.

Think about everyone you know and how many have never, ever, been on the net in their life - never used it at school, work, college, uni or the jobcentre. Never ever used it. Do you come up with 1 in 3? I certainly dont.

My 90 year old granparents have used the internet (albeit rarely). My 5 year old child uses the internet. Try as I might, I cant think of a single person I know (work with, related to or associated with) who has never used the internet. I know people who dont use it often, who rarely check email, never access Farcebook etc. but none who have never used the net.

Dodgy sampling but 30% is a high figure. You would think at least some of the people I know would fall into that box.....

@non english speakers

We all know that there exists only one true civilization - the Merkins And Tommies. Everbody else lives in a state of poverty and is ruled by the Tyrantts of Bruzzels, Beijing and Moscow.

Seriously, large parts of France, Spain and Germany have better infrastructure than Britain. And those regions of Italy where people are dirt-poor are not very large. In some parts of Germany you can get 100Mbit/s Internet access through the cable TV pipe.

As much as the EU has financed the building of large road networks and other infrastructure projects, it should work towards broadband access for everybody. Whether you need a cable to every household remains questionable, though. Linking up remote houses with UMTS, WiMAX or directed microwave links or a hybrid of those might be a much better idea.

Also, a hybrid fiber/laser/WiMAX setup might be an economic idea of providing internet access. Of course, one must overcome the Mobile-Phone-Mast-Phobians, if you intend to put a transmitter right into the center of a remote village....