Neelie Kroes, the European Commission VP responsible for the DigitalAgenda, called on the telecoms industry to lobby governments to unlock investment for high-speed broadband.

Citing the fact that China is busy installing 35 million fibre connections, the VP, who was speaking at the Broadband World Forum Forum in Amsterdam, said the fact that many governments agreed in principleto investing was insufficient.

“That’s not enough ­– there are 504 million people in the EU but sometimes I get the feeling that people outside [of the EU] are more aware of our crown jewels than we are,” she said.

Despite an economic climate that is seeing budgets slashed in an attempt to ride out widespread recession, Kroes made a passionate defence of the future potential that high-speed broadband could deliver.

She cited the Connecting Europe Facility’s €9.2 billion set aside for broadband and July's announcement regarding new investment proposals as efforts the EC had made to try and minimize risk in both the public and private sector.

Everyone “needs to work together” to ensure the continent is ready for the projected four-fold increase in IP traffic between 2011-15, according to the VP.