Europe Poised for High-Speed Surge

European broadband subscriptions will outpace the U.S. by 2007, according to findings from Jupiter Research (a unit of this site’s corporate parent), that reveal a high-speed surge. By 2008, Jupiter predicts that 48 percent of all European households will have broadband, compared to 46 percent in the U.S.

While 81 percent of European online households accessed the Internet via a narrowband connection at the end of 2002, 26 percent have indicated that they are likely to upgrade to broadband by year-end 2003.

Some online activities universally appeal to broadband users, as Yankee Group reveals similarities between their analysis of high-speed subscribers in Europe and U.S. research from Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Yankee Group found that rich media use is significantly higher among broadband subscribers – with the majority of usage going to unlicensed file downloading and audio streaming – and high-speed connectors spend much more time online than those dialing up.

Jupiter’s research reveals that the countries with the largest economies will have the highest broadband subscriptions: 12.2 million will be in Germany; 6.6 million in France; and 8 million in the U.K. By 2004, there will be 2.3 million broadband households in Spain and they will outnumber the 1.9 million with narrowband.

The high speed will clearly benefit the European Internet users, which constitutes roughly 29 percent of the population, according to figures from the CIA’s World Factbook. Leading the penetration rate is little Iceland, where 79 percent of the population is online, followed by Web-savvy Sweden at 68 percent.

The U.K. has the highest number of Internet users at 34.3 million, representing 57 percent of the country, while Germany boasts 32.1 million users, which translates to 39 percent of the country.

Other areas of significant penetration include: Denmark (63 percent), the Netherlands (61 percent), Norway (59 percent), Switzerland (53 percent), and Finland (52 percent).

Europe Internet Usage
	Population	Internet Users	Penetration	ISPs
Albania	3,544,841	12,000	> 1%	10
Andorra	68,403	24,500	36%	1
Armenia	3,330,099	30,000	1%	9
Austria	8,169,929	3,700,000	45%	37
Belarus	10,335,382	422,000	4%	23
Belgium	10,274,595	3,760,500	37%	61
Bosnia-Herzegovina	3,964,388	45,000	1%	3
Bulgaria	7,621,337	585,000	8%	200
Croatia	4,390,751	480,000	11%	9
Cyprus	767,314	150,000	20%	6
Czech Republic	10,256,760	2,690,000	26%	300
Denmark	5,368,854	3,370,500	63%	13
Estonia	1,415,681	429,700	30%	38
Faroe Islands	46,011	3,000	7%	2
Finland	5,183,545	2,690,000	52%	3
Georgia	4,960,951	25,000	1%	6
Germany	83,251,851	32,100,000	39%	200
Gibraltar	27,714	NA	NA	2
Greece	10,645,343	1,400,000	13%	27
Guernsey	64,587	NA	NA	NA
Hungary	10,075,034	1,200,000	12%	16
Iceland	279,384	220,000	79%	20
Ireland	3,883,159	1,310,000	34%	22
Isle of Man	73,873	NA	NA	NA
Italy	57,715,625	19,250,000	33%	93
Jersey	89,775	NA	NA	NA
Latvia	2,366,515	312,000	13%	41
Liechtenstein	32,842	NA	NA	NA
Lithuania	3,601,138	341,000	9%	32
Luxembourg	448,569	100,000	22%	8
Macedonia	2,054,800	100,000	5%	6
Malta	397,499	59,000	15%	6
Moldova	4,434,547	15,000	> 1%	2
Monaco	31,987	NA	NA	2
Netherlands	16,067,754	9,730,000	61%	52
Norway	4,525,116	2,680,000	59%	13
Poland	38,625,478	6,400,000	17%	19
Portugal	10,084,245	4,400,000	44%	16
Romania	22,317,730	1,000,000	4%	38
San Marino	27,730	NA	NA	2
Slovakia	5,422,366	700,000	13%	6
Slovenia	1,932,917	600,000	31%	11
Spain	40,077,100	7,890,000	20%	56
Svalbard	2,868	NA	NA	NA
Sweden	8,876,744	6,020,000	68%	29
Switzerland	7,301,994	3,850,000	53%	44
Ukraine	48,396,470	750,000	2%	260
United Kingdom	59,778,002	34,300,00	57%	<400
TOTAL	522,609,597	153,143,200	29%	1744
Source: CIA’s World Factbook