A very obvious aspect of the Bangemann report is that it at several places and in emphasized typography claims that the development of the European Information Highway should be a fully market driven effort and that governmental subsidies should be avoided. Rings some bells ?-!

I have not yet read the report, but if your assertion is true I should think it an unfortunate choice. The recent report of the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council - the operating arm of the US National Academy of Sciences - "Realizing the Information Future: The Internet and Beyond" proposes three continuing roles for government, at least in the US context: * providing leadership and guidance, * balancing interests and airing competing perspectives, and * influencing the shape of the information infrastructure. Each role contains implicitly a commitment of government resources, and among the financial instruments available are user subsidies and supplier subsidies. Their use has not been prohibited to us in the US who execute and administer policy, and I am surprised that policy-makers elsewhere would introduce such an a priori restriction. -s PS: The CSTB/NRC/NAS "NRENaissance report" is available from ftp.nas.edu. -s