Brussels -- According to the European Commission, the number of broadband lines in the EU increased by 70 percent year-on-year to more than 40 million lines, according to the latest government figures. On average, more than 45,000 broadband lines were connected every day in the EU in 2004, a remarkable increase compared to the average of 29,000 lines per day recorded in 2003. EU Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding warned that many member states' performances have been patchy despite the fact that Europe's overall performance has been very strong. The Netherlands and Denmark lead the pack with penetration rates of 19 percent and 18 percent, respectively, but a second group of member states averages out at about 8 percent, while a third group has been unable to push its average rate above 6 percent, Reding said.
Enterprise AI budgets are flowing in two directions at once, and only one of them builds an asset the buyer actually controls. Gartner's latest forecast puts worldwide AI spending at $2.7 trillion in 2026, but the composition of that figure matters far more than the total. Executives who read only the headline will miss the tension between what they are buying and what they actually own. The Number Behind the Number Gartner projects 2026 AI spending is a 49.5 percent increase over 2025, with $3.6 trillion forecast for 2027. AI infrastructure accounts for $1.5 trillion of this year's total, more than half. Gartner's John-David Lovelock calls the data center buildout the largest infrastructure project humanity has undertaken, and describes demand as inelastic even as memory prices climb. Compute Concentration is a Sovereignty Issue Gartner expects hyperscalers and service providers buying AI-optimized servers to remain the largest single area of spending. For an enterprise, t...