About: Internet Access Archives

Law enforcement agencies will be able to cut off the connections of Internet users suspected of illegally downloading films and music, lawmakers and EU ministers agreed in the small hours of this morning (5 November).

Using a mobile phone to send text messages or surf the Web by laptop will become up to 60 percent cheaper while travelling in the European Union under price curbs adopted by the European Parliament yesterday (22 April).

A Commission plan to spend five billion euro on clean energy and broadband Internet infrastructure projects has been redrafted. According to the new version, seen by EURACTIV, a number of countries will obtain more funding, at the expense of the EU's flagship Nabucco pipeline project.

Like car plates and telephone numbers, the Internet regularly needs to increase the number of numerical addresses available. With exponential growth in objects connected to the Web expected, policymakers are already warning of a looming 'digital gap', reports EURACTIV from an EU ministerial conference in Nice, France.

More relevant search, targeted advertising and attention to privacy: this is how Yahoo! intends to become the leader in the growing mobile Internet services market. Geraldine Wilson, vice president of Yahoo! Europe's Connected Life division, spoke to EURACTIV in an exclusive interview ahead of the FT Business of Mobile Conference.

Surfing the Web on a personal computer will become old-fashioned in less than ten years when the majority of Internet users are expected to access the Net through their mobile handsets, Geraldine Wilson, vice president of Yahoo! Europe Connected Life, told EURACTIV in an interview.

Community efforts to boost citizens' access to the web are paying off, with 40 million more Europeans becoming "regular internet users" last year, according to a new Commission report.

As researchers and decision makers gather for the fourth edition of the BroadBand Europe conference in Antwerp, new figures released by Eurostat show a marked increase in the use of broadband technologies for internet connection in Europe.

A wide-ranging package of proposals to reform the EU's telecommunication rules, due on 13 November 2007, will include measures to boost competition in Europe's broadband markets in order to increase the number of subscribers in new member states.

A Eurostat report has shown that although the internet is used at least once a week by half the EU’s citizens, broadband access is low in many member states.

A wide range of EU policy instruments and funds are now being activated to boost the spread of broadband internet to poorer regions.

Despite increasing levels of ICT usage in all regions and all sections of society, the digital divide in Europe still exists, says a new report by Eurostat.

In local government council elections to be held on 16 October 2005, voters in Estonia will be the first in the world to have the choice of voting either from their homes over the internet or in a traditional booth. 

Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding has opened a public consultation on bringing highspeed internet to those areas of the EU where it is not yet available.

The EU will prioritise the future governance of the internet and financial mechanisms for bridging the digital divide between industrial nations and developing countries. 

eEurope was launched in December 1999 to ensure the EU fully benefits from the changes the Information Society is bringing. eEurope's key objectives are to bringing every citizen, home and school, every business and administration, into the digital age and online. It plans to create a digitally literate Europe, supported by an entrepreneurial culture ready to finance and develop new ideas. eEurope also wants to ensure the whole process is socially inclusive, builds consumer trust and contributes to social cohesion.

As part of its efforts to push for more competition in broadband access, the Commission has opened infringement proceedings against 5 countries in relation to the Regulation on the unbundling of the local loop.

Local loop unbundling deals with the access to the cable from the local telephone exchange to the premises of the customer (also called "the last mile"). It is one of the most contentious issues in telecoms regulation as it deals with competition aspects. Under Regulation EC/2887/2000, incumbent telephone operators have to give access to this local loop to new market entrants.

The Commission has released a report on the sector inquiry in the unbundling of the local loop, and invited stakeholders to present their positions by 30 April 2002.