In his keynote address at Network+Interop Paris, 3Com Chairman and CEO Eric Benhamou outlined Europe`s unique starting point in the race towards converged networks - the streaming of voice, data and video over a single network.
"Europe is ideally placed to become a leading force in the road to convergence," said Benhamou. "Already Europe leads the way in wireless telephony with its world-class GSM network which is at least two years ahead of the US. Deregulation and the resulting rise in new entrants to the market is already beginning to show increasingly competitive pricing structures and improved service levels across the spectrum of the European communications industry."
"In terms of IT investment, both governments and businesses in Europe are increasingly recognising the role of IT to support a growing economy. Currently Europe spends 1.8 per cent of GDP on IT while US spending makes up 3.1 per cent, and this gap is closing. Europe has enormous growth potential for Internet usage. Currently only 47 per cent of businesses in Europe are connected to the Internet and only 5.5 per cent of households. With market predictions that PC sales are growing exponentially and that over one billion people will be connected to the Internet by 2010, 3Com estimates that over 350 million of these users will be in Europe."
The growing amount of knowledge and its transmission through data networks has led to an emerging "information society". In the information society the creation of wealth centres on the gathering and using of information supported by a rich network infrastructure. The key driver in the race towards the information society is the implementation of converged networks.
Benhamou concluded by stating that the most important hurdle left for Europe to overcome is the building of a solid and dedicated European Internet backbone that will provide the foundation for the move towards the "information society". Organisations such as the Alliance for the Internet in Europe (a4ie) will be instrumental in bringing together industry and governments to create an Internet infrastructure dedicated to the European market. Only when the void in Internet governance in Europe has been addressed will the opportunity be there for the projected 350 million European Internet users to connect to the Internet for the best possible experience.
Editors note
3Com Corporation enables individuals and organisations worldwide to stay more connected by communicating and sharing information and resources anytime, anywhere. As one of the world`s preeminent suppliers of data, voice and video communications technology, 3Com has delivered networking solutions to more than 200 million customers worldwide. The company provides large enterprise, small and medium enterprise, carriers and network service providers, and consumers comprehensive, innovative information access products and system solutions for building intelligent, reliable and high performance local and wide area networks. For further information, visit 3Com`s World Wide Web site at http://www.3Com.com or the press site at http://www.3Com.com/pressbox.
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