Broadband adoption in Germany trails badly behind the rest of Europe according to �Europe Surges Ahead on Broadband,� the latest research from Strategy Analytics. From the company�s Broadband Media & Communications service this report reveals that Germany has the lowest level of broadband ownership out of 14 European countries. Only 24 percent of German homes will have broadband by the end of 2005, compared to 56 percent in the Netherlands, Europe�s leading broadband market. �Germany�s fragmented and highly-regulated cable industry is a key factor in the constrained growth of broadband,� said Martin Olausson, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics. �With limited competition in Germany, Deutsche Telekom (DTAG) has no real incentive to implement an aggressive growth strategy for broadband.� This report also notes that after the Asia-Pacific market, Europe has now overtaken North America as the second largest broadband market in the world. It also predicts that total broadband household penetration in Western Europe will reach 63 percent by 2010, by which time 93 percent of online households will use broadband to access the Internet.
The Open Banking business model has been advantageous for Third-Party Providers (TPPs), helping them to extend their offerings into other areas of financial services with new capabilities. Open Banking is also advantageous for traditional banking institutions, despite the perceived loss of custodianship over their data, by providing greater accessibility to more bank services. Furthermore, Open Banking can help serve Mobile Internet providers that are able to leverage it to create tailored services according to customers’ preferences and/or economic limitations. Open Banking Market Development Since traditional banking services are made more convenient by TPPs via greater data access, customers can proactively manage their finances and shape the development of new financial offerings. This is particularly noticeable in the realm of Digital Payments, where retail merchants and customers transact through eCommerce, which has the greatest number of use cases for Open Banking. These includ