The digital economy is growing at seven times the rate of the rest of the economy, bringing about significant transformations in the way goods and services are produced. The development of high-speed networks today is having the same revolutionary impact as the development of electricity and transportation networks had a century ago. With the on-going developments in consumer electronics, the lines between digital devices get blurred: services are converging and moving from the physical into the digital world, becoming universally accessible on any device. It is projected that by 2020 digital content and applications will be almost entirely delivered online.

With the crisis wiping out years of economic and social progress, the European Union needs to keep up with the latest technological achievements that will get it back on track for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. In order to reboot Europe's economy and help its citizens and businesses get the most out of digital technologies, the European Commission has launched the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE). This initiative was set out to define the key role of Information and Communication Technologies in the European economy in the upcoming decade.

One of the main targets of the Digital Agenda for Europe is to achieve fast connectivity, as fast and ultra fast internet and interoperable applications are an essential prerequisite for the dynamic growth of the economy and the creation of jobs and prosperity, making sure that citizens and enterprises can access the content and services they need. The DAE broadband targets include the gradual deployment and take-up of Next Generation Access Networks (NGA) in a large part of the EU territory, allowing ultra fast internet connections above 100 Mbps. More specifically, the Agenda seeks to ensure that, by 2020: (i) all Europeans have access to much higher internet speeds of above 30 Mbps and (ii) 50% or more of European households subscribe to internet connections above 100 Mbps.

Topics related to the implementation of the Digital Agenda for Europe, the last technological trends towards broadband ubiquity, ICT development and its numerous applications to every-day life (such as e-government, e-health, e-learning, e-agriculture), regulation and competition in the field of telecommunications, financing investments in broadband infrastructure, will be discussed during a two-day conference entitled “Speeding up NGN ubiquity: a pillar for digital growth”, to be held in Athens on 13-14 February, under the auspices of the Greek Presidency of the Council of the EU. The event, organized by the Greek Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks, in cooperation with the International Telecommunication Union and the European Commission, will bring together experts and officials from all over the world to exchange views, knowledge and experience.