By Tim Ferguson, 13 November 2006 16:05
NEWS
UK companies are lagging behind their continental rivals in the broadband stakes, according to European research.
A survey by the European Statistical Office, Eurostat, found that 94 per cent of businesses questioned now have internet access - a rise of three per cent over 2005. Broadband internet coverage is also still on the up with 75 per cent of enterprises now having high speed connections, compared to 63 per cent in 2005.
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According to the figures, 77 per cent of companies in the UK use broadband - meaning Blighty lags behind Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Denmark and Belgium.
The countries with the highest proportion of businesses hooked up to the internet are Finland (99 per cent), Austria and Denmark (98 per cent) and the Netherlands (97 per cent). The UK has 92 per cent of businesses online but only 77 using broadband, according to the survey. Nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) of UK households are online, with 44 per cent using broadband.
The survey found nearly half of individuals use the internet once or more per week, and a third of all households now have broadband internet access. It was also shown that on average, men are more likely to use the internet than women (52 per cent to 43 per cent respectively).
The countries with the highest proportion of regular internet users are Sweden, (80 per cent), Denmark (78 per cent) and the Netherlands (76 per cent). Bottom of the heap is Greece, where only 23 per cent of people use the internet regularly.
The survey was carried out over the first quarter of 2006 and covered the 25 European member states as well as Iceland and Norway.
Comments
There are 3 comments. Join the discussion
1. Roger Huffadine
This is down to the government who in the 1980s restricted the BT licence conditions to ensure that they could not compete with the 'friends of the government' who wanted to make a fortune out of cable services - like TV.
So BT couldn't deploy any 'broadband' and the infrastructure suffered. The cable companies 'cherry picked' - went bust - took their profits offshore and left us with a damaged infrastructure. Those in business at that time advised the government that their plan would be a disaster ( I was there when we told them) but strange forces involving money seemed to dull their ears.
2. Richard Sarson
What an odd view? I blame BT. It was scared to roll out Broadband in the '90s, because of the impact on its leased line and ISDN business.
Fortunately for me, an impoverished teleworker, the governments (Tory and Labour) had introduced competition, and the Cable companies rolled out affordable BB early in 2001.
BT didn't really get enthusiastic until Ben Verwayen took over in Feb 2002. By then, the rest of the world had passed us by.
3. Radical Meldrew
Its interesting to view the two previous comments which have essentially opposite views of BT's historical impact on present day IT solutions. I have worked on and off for BT for many years in various roles and do sympathise with the dilemma presented to them.
Fair competition could have changed the situation sympathetically but Maggie's liberalisation of the institutional providers was essentially flawed, alas Tony being a sycophant duly followed - They were suddenly presented to the public as huge, inefficient giants only fit for erosion (this ignored the revenue that they paid in taxes, and the public cash that they had inherited) New providers were to the next superstars to bring in revenue (and benefit hugely from the existing public funding).... fine ideals but, please, not at the expense of the fundamental infrastructure.
Taking this mentality to its ultimate logical conclusion... let's consider outsourcing our government. Lots of providers competing the top seat, we could relocate the House of Commons to an off-shore call centre. At least it could be amusing to phone a 24hr MP hotline "Hello, how can I be of service, and may I have your ID card number ?"
We're all used to crap service from the government so a corporate run call centre mentality will come as no big surprise at all.