Belgian Internet Users: Broadband or Offline

A digital divide separates broadband users from those who don’t own PCs in Belgium. A survey released by the Internet Service Providers Association Belgium (ISPA) says the country’s online population is just over two million (2.09M) connections.

Belgium’s population is 10.36 million. The ISPA cites a low household PC penetration for the relatively low number of users. Initiatives from the Federal government and the information and communications technology (ICT) sector plan to offer incentives to get computers in more households.

A majority of the 2.09 million connections in households and businesses are high-speed. Household Internet connections hit 1.65 million in Q3 2005. Broadband accounts for 82 percent of residential connections. Businesses in Belgium account for 398,000 connections, 94 percent of which are broadband.

The third quarter saw a residential increase of Internet connections of 1.8 percent, and broadband growth of three percent. The commercial sector realized a two percent increase in connections, and broadband growth of 5.4 percent. The two percent growth in new connections went predominantly to broadband accounts. Overall growth in the number of new Internet connections was just one percent in the quarter.