GidoGeek

Where the nerds meet the hippies →

Neelie Kroes:

In summary, Silicon Valley offers a lot of insights for Europe. We should not try to replicate it, but we can learn from its example, and devise our own models. We need to inject a more entrepreneurial culture in our universities; invest in stronger trans-European networks of researchers, venture capital, and entrepreneurs; and stimulate our ‘old’ multinationals and incumbents to be more innovation friendly and to embrace, not fight, new technologies and disruptive business models. Going to the Valley is a breathtaking experience and anyone in Europe interested in developing an ICT business should go; hopefully they will bring back ideas to build the new global businesses of the future here.

A better deal for roaming in the EU →

Neelie Kroes:

Within a Single Market, there is simply no justification for huge mark-ups, just because you’ve crossed an invisible internal border that is supposed to have disappeared. And just because customers have little or no choice in the matter.

For example, people often pay over 2 euros per megabyte of data downloaded when roaming, whereas operators typically charge each other substantially less than 50 cents.

This has got to stop.

She gets it.

UPDATE: She blogged about it here.

Why is European broadband faster and cheaper? Blame the government →

Rick Karr reporting for Engadget:

We went to the Netherlands because it has one of the world’s most advanced and fastest-growing fiber-optic networks. We visited homes there that get 100 mbps service in both directions — they can upload as fast as they download — as well as TV and phone for under $100 a month.

Another reason to come to Appsterdam.