Mushrooming interest in the Internet is responsible for the fastest growth ever seen in European telecoms market. According to a survey by IDC, European ISPs last year experienced revenue growth of 53 per cent, although the market research company predicts this steep rate of growth will ease slightly this year, to 44 per cent. Even so, IDC believes the European ISP market was worth $4.3 billion in 1998. This high level of growth is in spite of falling prices across Europe and the emergence of lower-cost access methods such as subscription-free services that proved so popular in the UK. "Broadband access is the fastest-growing segment of the Internet access market," added James Eibisch, research manager of IDC's European ISP markets programme. "All European countries will exhibit growth rates near, or over, 100 per cent from 1999 to 2003," he said. From 2002, revenues gained from corporate Internet access will begin to slow down, although the segment will still outgrow nearly all other IT markets, IDC said. The report, European Internet Access Market 1998-2003, predicts that in the Internet services market, any long-term future slowdown from plain access will be more than countered by a high increase in value-added services business such as Web/application hosting, commerce and security. ®