According to IHS, 4G long term evolution (LTE) mobile broadband coverage increased by 20 per cent to achieve penetration levels of 79.4 per cent in European Union (EU) households in 2014.

Meanwhile, the next generation access (NGA) broadband coverage accounted for 68.1 per cent of EU homes. Further, fixed broadband coverage growth was flat at 97 per cent and the rural fixed broadband coverage in EU stood at 89.6 per cent. In comparison, NGA technologies in rural areas increased to 25.1 per cent of rural homes in 2014 as against 18.1 per cent in 2013.

The research firm states that LTE at present covers 99 per cent of households in Denmark, Netherlands and Sweden. Other countries such as Czech Republic and Malta witnessed growth in LTE coverage from 12 per cent to 91.9 per cent and from no coverage to 67 per cent, respectively.

IHS underlines that the growth in overall NGA coverage can be primarily attributed to an increase in very-high-bit-rate digital subscriber line (VDSL) coverage, which grew by over seven percentage points in the year, reaching 37.6 per cent of EU households by the end of 2014. Significant increases were recorded in Denmark, Austria, and Iceland, all these countries reported increases in VDSL coverage exceeding 30 percentage points.

Further, fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) coverage increased, with services available to 18.7 per cent of European households. In 2014 Lithuania and Latvia emerged as the leading countries with highest FTTP coverage. About 95 per cent of the households in Lithuania and 83.2 per cent of the households in Latvia were connected with FTTP. Meanwhile, FTTP coverage grew by 16.1 per cent in Portugal and 22.1 per cent in Spain, reaching 65.8 per cent of Portuguese and 44.8 per cent of Spanish homes.