Since 2001 the UK Government has provided one billion pounds of “incentive” through state aid (channeled through the Regional Development Authorities), public-private partnerships and induced/aggregated demand from public services (egovernment projects, schools- and hospitals-online) to get BT to install DSL equipment in areas where the company said it was not “economically viable.” For documentation see “Broadband Procurement To Improve Efficiency and Effectiveness of Public Service Delivery” by Mike Gunston, UK Office of Government Commerce, presented at an OECD Broadband Workshop, Paris, France (2-4 December 2002).
This huge subsidy bribe sum was supposed to achieve the Government’s goal of making the UK “the most extensive and competitive broadband market in the G7 by 2005″ (UK online: the broadband future - An action plan to facilitate roll-out of higher bandwidth and broadband services, Office of the e-Envoy, 13 February 2001).)
Mihaly Nyary on 09 Aug 08"While at T-Mobile Hungary mobile broadband has become the key growth driver fuelling value added service revenue growth, in the fixed line segment growth in internet revenues slowed down significantly and fixed line churn increased further in Q2," CEO Christopher Mattheisen said in a management commentary to the Q2 report. The chief executive's cautious commentary is not surprising in light of the fact that Q2 saw a decline (!) in T-Com Hungary's fixed-line Interenet revenues for the first time in the company's history on strong competition from mobile Internet and cable service providers. The performance of Magyar Telekom's foreign subsidiaries was likewise too weak to generate significant growth in the entire fixed-line division. Consolidated Internet service revenues grew only 6.7% in the first six months of 2008, which compares with 8.3% and 16.4% at Magyar Telekom's Czech and Polish industry peers, respectively. (The picture is actually even gloomier, considering the fact that Q2 alone saw only 4.4% growth.)
