According to a new IDC study, broadband penetration in Western Europe will continue to surge in coming years. By 2009, 46 percent of Western European households will have broadband access, compared to 20 percent at the end of 2004. Wide availability, broad choice, growing competition, affordable pricing, and increasing end-user awareness have been fundamental in the development of the high-speed Internet market into a mass market. However, �broadband is no longer just about high-speed Internet access, as it has evolved into an enabler of a wide bouquet of IP-based services,� said Jan Hein Bakkers, senior analyst. �Although Internet access will remain the most important application for the short to medium term, services like voice over broadband and IPTV are also destined to become cornerstones of successful broadband strategies." Operators are betting heavily on these services to present new business opportunities, to make up for the fall in prices of basic broadband Internet access and decreasing traditional revenue streams. Operators will provide bundles of services to attract new customers and retain existing clients. However, they need to be careful that the bundling opportunity does not turn into a bundling challenge, as the poor performance of one service can backfire on the entire service package. By 2009, there will be more than 92 million broadband connections, up from 40 million at the end of 2004. 83 percent of these will be provided to the residential market. In 2009, basic broadband access services will represent a $37 billion revenue opportunity in Western Europe.
The BaaS model has been adopted across a wide range of industries due to its ability to streamline financial processes for non-banks and foster innovation. BaaS has several industry-specific use cases, where it creates new revenue streams. Banking as a Service (BaaS) is rapidly emerging as a growth market, allowing non-bank businesses to integrate banking services into their core products and online platforms. As defined by Juniper Research, BaaS is "the delivery and integration of digital banking services by licensed banks, directly into the products of non-banking businesses, commonly through the use of APIs." BaaS Market Development The core idea is that licensed banks can rent out their regulated financial infrastructure through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to third-party Fintechs and other interested companies. This enables those organizations to offer banking capabilities like payment processing, account management, and debit or credit card issuance without