By Suzanna Kerridge, 5 April 2000 17:35
NEWS Scandinavia leads the way in the drive for Internet penetration according to a report by Amsterdam based Pro Active Internationale. The report, called the Pan European Internet Monitor, places Sweden and Finland at the top of the chart with France and Britain in tenth and seventh position respectively. In Sweden, the number of people online accounts for 53.3 per cent of the population compared to only 35 per cent in Britain and 19 per cent in France. Overall, the report estimated that only eight per cent of Europeans accessed the Internet compared to 15 per cent of Americans. Ashim Pal, Internet analyst at Meta Group blamed the telcos for inhibiting Internet growth within Europe. Pal said: "It's a little low but not surprising. The problem is that telcos show little sign of opening the local loop to local callers and I don't think the telcos are ready to make the jump to free local calls. We are also far from the point where Internet access is of a high quality and PCs are dirt cheap." However, Fraser Pearce, research director at Fletcher Research, disputed the figures. He claimed that Internet penetration in Britain was only 24 per cent and nine per cent in France. According to Pearce, "Europe has every chance of catching up with America but there are certain things that will stop the Southern European countries from growing as fast as they should do: for example, limited local content, especially in Spain and Italy. At the moment over 80 per cent of content on the Internet is in English.
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