We have to offer a wholesale product to the customer. The summit topic will be on growing Europe's knowledge-based, Internet economy. According to Portuguese prime minister and current EU president, Ant nio Guterres, one of the priorities of the summit will be to establish a plan for an EU-wide reduction in local telephone costs. Regardless of any decisions made in Lisbon, it is widely believed in the industry that flat-rate Internet access fees will have established a firm foothold in the U.K, and to a lesser extent throughout the rest of Europe by the end of the year. What has been happening in the U.K. in the past two weeks has been highlighting the very high levels of pent-up demand for unmetered services.
Metered rates are an old and unjustified business model.
The telcos are the barrier to the e-commerce revolution in Europe. Even France Telecom realizes the change is coming. The mass market in France is very short, people only want to try the Internet in small lumps of time now. It is very hard to say about e-commerce but the market is evolving and for sure it is going to happen. International Data Group Inc. All rights reserved.