Half of EU internet users ‘ready to upgrade’

Almost half of European internet users are willing to upgrade or change supplier to get access to higher speeds, according to an EU-wide survey. 

According to the EU E-Communications Household Survey, 45% of European households are prepared to upgrade their internet subscriptions or switch supplier to get higher speed broadband.

Around 40% of internet users said the found it difficult to access online content and applications because of insufficient speed or download capacity.

Twenty per cent of respondents said they found it difficult to access online content or had apps blocked on mobile phones – up four percentage points on the December 2011 survey – with this number rising to 42% for those trying to watch videos. Twenty-two per cent of those trying to download video content for free experiences problems as did 20% of those trying to watch live events.

The survey found that 45% of households now purchase a bundle of communication and TV services from a single provider, of which 40% had considered changing their provider, with 29% complaining about the difficulty of comparing the terms of bundled packages.

The survey also found that 54% of households limit their national and international mobile phone calls because of concerns about costs. Forty-four per cent of households had at least one mobile internet subscription, up from 30% in 2012.

The fieldwork for the survey was completed in March 2013, with 27,786 respondents from different representative social and demographic groups of the EU population being interviewed face-to-face at home.