Brussels, 08/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - Nearly half (45%) of European households are willing to upgrade their internet subscription or change supplier for a higher connection speed, with speed catching up on price as a factor determining the choice of internet plan. This is revealed by the latest study, published on Monday 8 July, of how Europeans use the internet.
Commissioner Neelie Kroes said: “Consumers increasingly care about their internet being fast enough to watch videos, for example. And for those who run businesses from their home, speed is also a competitiveness issue. Customers now focus on both speed and price when making their choices”.
The study also showed that more than half (54%) of households limit their national and international mobile phone calls because of concerns about cost. Kroes says that “it's not acceptable for half the population to be limiting their phone calls because of cost issues, and it's not acceptable that the lack of a connected single market encourages those limitations”. However, the 2013 survey saw an 11% drop (from 60% to 49%) in the numbers concerned about the cost of calls to networks other than their own domestic networks. This is a clear sign that the Commission's efforts to reduce mobile termination rates are having a positive effect for consumers. The Eurobarometer survey also revealed the following points: 1) 40% of users have found it difficult to access online content and applications because of insufficient speed or download capacity; 2) 20% of users said they sometimes found it difficult to access online content due to apps being blocked on their mobile phone (up four percentage points compared to December 2011) - this was more likely to occur when trying to watch videos (42%), listen to music (22%), download video content for free (22%), watch live events (20%) or play online games (19%); 3) only 38% agreed that sound quality is very good on their mobile phones, compared with 49% for landline phones and 25% for internet calls; 4) the most annoying problem regarding net neutrality and copyright is video blocks. 34% of adults use VoIP calling services (up from 27% in 2012).
The Commission adds that 44% of households have at least one mobile internet subscription (up from 30% in 2012). 45% of household purchase a bundle of communications services (for example, a combination of television, broadband, phone, mobile services) from the same supplier. 40% (of the 45% of households) have considered changing their bundle provider, but 29% say it is not easy to compare the terms of bundle packages. (LC/transl.fl)