DSL Should Speed Up Business Access in Europe

Cheaper integrated services digital networks (ISDN) and the roll out of asymmetric digital subscriber lines (ADSL) will put an end to the bandwidth bottleneck being experienced by Datamonitor.

The report “European Business Internet Services Markets” found that these new technologies will give European businesses the same opportunities as their counterparts in the US.

By 2004, more than one-fifth of businesses in Europe will use DSL to access the Internet, according to the report. In the past, access solutions have, in most cases, been out of the price range of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). As a relatively low-cost, high-speed access technology, ADSL seems the most likely candidate to fill this void.

Datamonitor’s report predicts that by 2004, there will be 6.9 million business subscription accounts for Internet services and DSL will account for 1.4 million of this total. DSL sales via the medium of ADSL will grow at a compound annual annual growth rate of 154 percent between 1998 and 2004.

“The bandwidth bottleneck in the SME market looks to become a thing of the past with the advent of cheaper broadband access technologies,” said Ian Williams, Datamonitor’s technology analyst. “Technologies such as DSL, and to a lesser extent cable, will offer high bandwidth solutions to small businesses, with speeds previously available to only the richer companies. This can only come about, however, if the introduction of ADSL services is keenly monitored by government regulatory authorities to ensure the service is offered at a price acceptable to the market.”

According to Datamonitor, European businesses will spend $6.1 billion per year on subscriptions and set-up fees to access the Internet. Businesses of all sizes will clamor to use the Internet for a variety of reasons but the main one will be to gain a competitive edge and second to avoid falling behind. They will be driven by online advertising, publishing, email business development, information seeking, and e-commerce.