British businesses 'not keeping up with technology' Only 14 per cent of British small businesses sold their products online over the last year, falling far short of the Commission target of 33 per cent selling over the internet by 2015. "Europeans are hungry for digital technologies and more digital choices, but governments and industry are not keeping up with them," Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes said. We are shooting ourselves in the foot by under-investing. The Commission's report highlighted a number of areas it said governments across Europe should address. These included a lack of technological skills among half of the European workforce, a failure to foster cross-border eCommerce, and the continuing "rip-off" of consumers through mobile roaming charges. Britain's report card was not all doom and gloom, as the country exceeded many of the digital targets the Commission had set for 2015. For example, 71 per cent of British people currently shop online, beating the 50 per cent target by a large margin. Some 81 per cent of Britons use the internet at least once a week, beating the target of 75 per cent. The country also exceeded targets for getting internet access to disadvantaged people and for bringing people online for the first time. Broadband penetration is slowing down, though, as the total number of people with access to high-speed internet grew by only 0.1 per cent between January 2011 and January 2012. With 32 per cent of people having access to fixed-line broadband, the UK remained four points above the European average.