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Europeans are becoming increasingly "digital" according to a European Commission Eurobarometer survey which questioned 27,000 households throughout the EU on their use of internet, telephones and TV. More Europeans are subscribing to broadband internet and digital television in fixed-cost bundled 'packages'. Increased broadband take-up means even more Europeans are going online with 35% now using social networking websites. However, they have concerns about cost, quality of service and security, as well as online freedom. One fifth of fixed and mobile internet users reveal that they have experienced problems with blocked content and applications.

Internet and broadband internet access

The survey reveals that 43% of EU households still do not have Internet access. Almost one in five households surveyed mentioned the high costs associated with the Internet being the reason for having no Internet connection at home.

Many of those non-connected at home state that they are not interested in the Internet. The Commission's view is that all EU citizens should have the option of subscribing to broadband Internet and that if all were aware of the potential advantages (e.g. in terms of access to innovative services, working from home), more would be likely to do so.

Packages

Of the households questioned, 38% subscribe to a package with two or more services. Digital terrestrial TV is received by nearly one quarter of EU households surveyed, a similar level to satellite TV.

Cost and quality concerns

According to the survey, 61% of EU mobile phone users and 49% of landline subscribers limit their calls because of cost concerns. In households with broadband connections, 30% say that the download speed does not remain constant, 36% experience connection breakdowns and 24% say that performance does not match contract conditions.

Internet trust and security

84% of households would want to be notified if their personal data was lost, stolen or altered. 45% are worried about their personal data being misused on social networking sites. Those under 24 years old are less worried about this than the over 40s.

21% of the European households with internet access surveyed considered that their access to certain online content and applications has been blocked by their internet provider. This is also mentioned by an equivalent proportion of mobile internet users, but around one third attribute this to the limited capacity of their phone or their phone subscription.

Additional survey findings

More than one third of EU citizens use a social networking site; this is true both for countries with high (e.g. The Netherlands) and low (e.g. Latvia) internet take-up. 22% of households with internet access use their computer to make voice calls over the internet. Households in the 12 newer Member States are twice as likely to do this as those in the other 15 Member States.

98% of EU households have access to a telephone and an increasing proportion of households (87%) have access to a mobile phone. Only 11% have fixed-line access only. 25% use only a mobile phone and have no fixed phone line.

98% of EU households have television but only 30% use transmission via a cable network, while 23% use digital TV, an increase of 11% compared to 2007.

The full survey can be found at:

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/ecomm/library/ext_studies/index_en.htm