The Next Web

A quick update on the digital life of Europeans

Written on July 4, 2008 – 11:32 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Every year, the European Commission carries out a study on the digital lives of the citizens in its 27 member countries: the E-Communications Household Survey. The research mainly concerns telecommunications - we’re giving up on landlines -, but also contains some interesting facts about the use of computers and Internet.

The survey of 27,000 households was carried out between November 9 and December 14, 2007. You can either download the report (2.8 MB) - which you don’t have the time for - or glance at this short fact sheet to see what your target group is up to.

• A majority of the European households - 53 percent - have access to a computer.
• Half of the European houses have access to the Internet. Although this is an increase of seven percent compared to last year, 51 percent still can’t check their email at home.
• Half of the people who don’t have Internet access just don’t really care about the web.
• Access via broadband has once again become more widespread, it increased with eight percent over the last year to 36 percent.
• 22 percent of the European households have a wireless Internet connection. An increase of eight percent.
• another 22 percent figure: this is the percentage of people who make VoIP calls. This is an increase of five percent and similar to the trend in the U.S.

We can be really satisfied with these numbers. Especially as a recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) shows that of the fifteen countries with the highest number of broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, twelve are European. Like I stated before, Europe is broadband paradise.

I hope you like that post!

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broadband, broadband connections, Broadband Internet access, European Commission, european union, oecd, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, voip

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Amsterdam welcomes wireless broadband network Wimax

Written on June 17, 2008 – 8:25 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Today is a good day. From now on I can use broadband Internet wherever I am in my city. Even when I’m riding my bicycle or chilling in my favorite bar. As Worldmax - partly funded by Intel and Greenfield - launched a mobile version of the Wimax standard today.

CEO Jeanine van der Vlist told Reuters that Worldmax is aiming to roll-out a nationwide network, which will require 30,000 sites. The costs of this ambitious project will run into hundreds of millions euros.

Worldmax will charge around 20 euros per month for a subscription, which will grant laptop users unlimited use of data. As you can imagine, mobile operator won’t be happy with the arrival of this new player. Since they have already been desperately trying to prevent people from using VOiP and other services that threaten their revenue sources.

Holland isn’t the first country that welcomes Wimax, as Vodafone already offers the service in Malta. However, these Wimax sites don’t allow browsing on the move - as a laptop has to be stationary to connect with the web.

amsterdam, Broadband Internet access, Wimax, wireless, worldmax

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