Broadband penetration has continued to rise in the European Union this year, according to a new report from the European Commission, which finds that 24% of the EU population had a broadband access line subscription in July 2009, up from 21.6% one year previously.

The report also found that mobile broadband is gaining momentum in Europe, having posted a 54% increase since January and now having a penetration rate of 4.2% per 100 citizens.  Broadband Internet connections are also found to be increasingly faster, with 80% of broadband lines in the EU now having download speeds of 2 Mbps or greater, up 5% from last year.

"Despite the economic slowdown, Europe continues to have a very dynamic broadband market,"  said EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding.  "Enhanced competition is driving better services, and consumers nowadays regard their broadband internet access as an essential part of life.  This is a good starting point for the next European Commission. Vibrant high-speed broadband markets in a competitive single telecoms market are a strategic priority in the European Digital Agenda that is currently being prepared in the Commission.

New figures published by the European Commission indicate that the number of broadband lines continued to grow throughout the EU by 10.7% on average in the 12 months to July 2009, despite the "gloomy" economic environment.  On July 1st of this year, there were found to be 120mn fixed broadband lines in the EU, of which 11.5mn were added since July 2008.

Denmark and the Netherlands were found to remain the world leaders in broadband take-up, with nearly 40% of the population having a broadband connection, although  growth rates are slowing as they reach saturation, according to the report.  Nine EU countries (Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and now also Belgium) were found to have higher broadband take-up than the US.

The average market share of incumbent telecoms operators in the EU is stable at around 45% (highest at 80% in Cyprus, 67% in both Luxembourg and Finland, and lowest at 27% in the UK), however incumbent control of broadband markets is found to be declining, which is described as being "to the benefit of the infrastructure base".

In terms of access technologies, DSL remains the most widespread throughout Europe with 94mn lines, however Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) grew by 40% in the 12 months to last July, but still only represents 1.75% of the total lines in Europe.