Digital economy and increasing trends of broadband network access in Europe and the Republic of Croatia

The first part of the paper deals with forecasts of the global growth of the required access speed for broadband networks in the next decade. Broadband access is one of the basic components of digital economy. This part of the article also describes other factors influcencing the development of digital economy. The second part of the paper is a comparative analysis between main factors of the Croatian digital economy and the digital economy in the EU countries, and the movement of certain factors for the period between 2014 and 2015. One of the main factors is "Connectivity", but it is lagging behind in relation to movements in the EU. Furthermore, the article shows the comparison of the situation of individual broadband access technologies in the Republic of Croatia and the state of the EU average, indicating differences in the developmental trends. Finally, the paper proposes activities and stakeholders to further enhance the overall digital economy of the Republic of Croatia.