High-speed Internet connections in the European Union have doubled in the past year with some countries surpassing the United States in the booming sector, the EU telecommunications commissioner says.

"If there is one area in the European economy where there has been very dramatic change in the last six to 12 months, it is in broadband,'' Erkki Liikanen told reporters Wednesday after meeting heads of Europe's leading telecommunications operators and equipment makers.

"The growth rates in broadband are about 100 percent per year at the moment, and there seems to be no slowing down,'' he said. "A feeling of change is in the air.''

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