Telecom: The Grand Duchy ranked among the top five European countries for fast internet access, a European Commission-sponsored study has found.
Luxembourg residents have access to some of the fastest internet networks in Europe, according to a recent EU report.
The Grand Duchy tied as one of the five countries with the highest rate of “overall fixed broadband coverage” out of the 31 European countries studied (the EU28, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland). 100% of households in Luxembourg, Cyprus, Malta, the Netherlands and UK had access to “broadband services of at least 2Mbps download speed”, the report authors stated.
They were followed by Belgium and Switzerland (99.9%), and Portugal (99.8%). Rates were “lowest in Poland, Slovakia, Estonia and Romania where [high speed fixed broadband] reached between 85.4% and 89.4% of households”.
In terms of mobile internet, Luxembourg had the 4th highest rate of “LTE coverage”, the fastest type of service in commercial operation, reaching 96% of households. The Grand Duchy only trailed the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark (each with 99% or more coverage). The EU28 average was 79%.
The study, “ Broadband Coverage in Europe 2014: Mapping Progress towards the Coverage Objectives of the Digital Agenda ”, was conducted by the market research firms IHS Technology and Valdani, Vicari & Associati for the European Commission , and was released on 22 October.
“The results show that over 216 million EU households (99.4%) had access to at least one of the main fixed or mobile broadband access technologies at the end of 2014 (excluding satellite),” three million more than in 2013, the report said.