The future is burning bright for the ICT manufacturing and services across the European Union as the continent enjoys a "broadband revolution" and takes up global leadership in the mobile sector

This upbeat assessment came from the European Network of Training Organisations Conference 2003 in Brussels this week. At the event, Erkki Liikanen, member of the European Commission responsible for enterprise and the information society, said: "Growth in the broadband market certainly entitles us to talk about a broadband revolution. I expect growth to continue along the S curve, and I look at broadband as a key enabling technology for the delivery of those services that will help increasing the performance of companies and public administrations." According to Liikanen, the rapid growth of broadband connections over the last year is encouraging, and ADSL is the fastest growing way of accessing broadband. He pointed out that there are now close to a total of 20 million connections in the European Union and "several European countries are now ahead of the US". However, he admitted that there was still much work to be done across Europe to roll out broadband to rural areas and promised that Brussels will continue its policy of intervention to force telcos to expand their coverage beyond urban centers.