Future outlook

Broadband Internet is an essential companion on our path towards the information society – but it is also much more than that. The achievements of broadband Internet technology are making our economy and society much more competitive at the global level. This ability to compete creates the foundation for our collective prosperity as well as opportunities for all of us.

The next few years will be a period of strong and dynamic growth for broadband Internet, with a constant stream of innovations delivering further benefits for users. More people will be using even higher-capacity broadband Internet, which will lead to even more products, services and ideas. The convergence of entire sectors will create added value through the intelligent combination and bundling of innovative broadband Internet applications. The next few years will see significant growth in the numbers of people using combined broadband Internet services such as quadruple play or triple play.

All of these new developments will have the effect of revitalizing some traditional virtues. Tomorrow’s customers will put a high priority on quality and service. That means user-friendliness has to remain the main focus for any provider hoping to retain his existing customer base and secure new business in a tough competitive environment. One of the major challenges for the coming years will be mobile broadband Internet. We are seeing a paradigm shift, particularly among the younger generation, where the digital lifestyle has been most enthusiastically embraced. And the trend dominating the digital lifestyle is clearly the use of broadband Internet to network all areas of the consumer’s life. Social networking on the Internet via communities, forums or blogs will become an integral part of everyday life. In a word: the information society will become a reality.

The same picture can be seen internationally, with everything geared to broadband Internet. This powerful trend is going bring many changes over the next few years. Our task is to be open and receptive towards a continuing flow of innovations, as the only to way to reap the full benefits from broadband Internet. There will be no lack of opportunities and challenges – our role, as providers and users, is to accept them and make the best possible use of them.