Romania needs to plug in more of its rural areas to the Internet, commissioner Kroes says

More than half of Romanians have never used the Internet and Romanian authorities should solve this problem by focusing more on rural areas, where low income people don't have access to education, said European Commissioner Neelie Kroes, on a visit to Bucharest. Kroes (in picture) is in charge of the Digital Agenda, a project which aims to ensure Internet access for all Europeans by 2020. The average ratio of people who have never used the Internet is of 26 percent in Europe. Romania's still low internet penetration is somehow unexpected given that the country has some of the cheapest and fastest Internet services in Europe. The main explanation is the poor infrastructure development. The Romanian authorities plan to increase the Internet penetration to 90 percent by 2015, according to Romanian Communication Minister Valerian Vreme. Romania has been allotted EUR 84 million to finance the broadband Internet access network in areas which are not covered by operators. The contract will be signed in November and will last for two years. editor@romania-insider.com (photo source: European Commission)