Broadband internet in EU countries: limits to growth

This article provides an analysis of broadband Internet diffusion in 27 countries of the European Union. It proposes a simple model of its growth and identifies the theoretical growth limits in each country. Some aspects of the European i2010 project implementation are presented, discussed, and compared with the model. Comments on bottlenecks and major barriers in the broadband Internet diffusion process are also offered. The existing digital gaps are irreducible in some cases and will exist as long as the current development conditions continue. The approach and analysis method proposed here may be useful in examining limits of other services or in other regions during the planning, design, implementation, and performance tracking stages of existing or new services.