Internet connection speed key for users, says EU survey

Newsroom 11/07/2013 | 16:40

The main criteria European netizens take into consideration when assessing their internet services is the speed of connection, according to the E-communications Household Survey, the latest Eurobarometer survey carried out by the European Union between February and March.

Neelie Kroes (in picture), vice-president of the European Commission, says consumers are increasingly expecting faster internet to use services such as video while for those who work from home, speed is a matter of competitiveness. Currently, consumers consider speed as well as price when picking their supplier.

The survey also revealed that 54 percent of households limit their national and international calls on the mobile, for cost reasons.

In Romania, 71 percent of respondents said they restrict their calls while countries such as Denmark or Finland are at the opposite pole with under 30 percent.

Kroes said that it was unacceptable that, in the era of smartphones when good quality mobile services are an essential part of day-to-day life, half of the public limits their phone calls due to costs and the lack of a single connected market encourages this.

In Romania, 54 percent of households have a computer and 52 percent have internet access, but only 46 percent of the total number have broadband access.

When asked whether they had considered changing their bundle provider, 54 percent of Romanian respondents said they had never considered it, 24 percent said they had but were satisfied with the service they were getting, 14 percent answered there were no good providers in their area that offer value for money while 4 percent said they had changed and were under contract with their current provider for the time being.