Broadband Internet grows in spite of economic crisis

The number of broadband Internet connections per 100 people in Europe has grown in the last year, despite the troubles with the economy. In the European Union, there now are on average 23,9 broadband connections for every 100 people, show figures recently presented by the EU. This is a rise of 2,3% compared to last year.

Broadband access to the Internet is a good deal higher than these figures, as usually, more than one person benefits from a connection.

The Netherlands lead the pack, with 37,9 connections for every 100 persons, followed closely by Denmark (37,2) and Sweden (32,5). Lowest adoption is found in Bulgaria (11,9) and Romania (12,3).

Apart from this quantitative growth, the quality of Internet connections also increases. 80% of the broadband lines feature download speeds of at least 2 Mbps. That is enough for streaming video and to use web 2.0 services. A year ago, this figure was 75%.

DSL remains the most popular family of technologies for accessing the web. Fiber is growing fast (reporting an increase of 40% in one year), but remains small with only 1,75% of lines being fibreglass.

Broadband access to mobile Internet is also on the rise, growing to an EU average of 4,2%. Especially in Austria, Sweden and Portugal, broadband mobile Internet really took off. In those countries, ten to thirteen per cent of the population have a mobile Internet connection.

22-12-2009