A wide variety of technical solutions, the report says, are available for accessing broadband internet, but the Digital Subscriber Line (xDSL) now has a market share of almost 80%.
Other technologies, like access via satellite, TV cable, power lines, optical fibres, dedicated lines and wireless local loop (WLL) not only have a smaller share; they are also growing slower, accounting for only 14% of new connections.
Addressing telecom network operators on 1 June 2005 in Brussels, Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding has hinted that she may use her regulatory powers to boost these technologies. More inter-platform competition would, according to Ms Reding, be to the consumers' benefit.
Incumbent operators [the formerly state-owned telecom companies] still provided more than half of all broadband lines and two thirds of xDSL lines, but new entrants on the market are quickly gaining a greater share of it.
