Romania, well below EU average on Internet use, but ranks high on speed

Half of Romanian households had an internet connection at the end of 2013, but this was lower than the EU average of 76 percent. However, Romania ranks third in the EU on fast broadband connections – above 100 Mbps, which make for a quarter of all broadband internet subscriptions, compared to just 5 percent at the EU level, according to data from the European Commission, quoted by Hotnews.ro. Only a third of Romanians go online at least once a day, which is half than the EU average of 62 percent. On top of it, around 40 percent of Romanians never used the Internet, which is twice the EU average of 20 percent. Romania has however made progress and it has chances to reach its 2015 target on regular Internet use within the EU. The data was published in the EC's Digital Agenda Scoreboard for 2014. At the end of 2013, fixed broadband covered 90 percent of homes in Romania, compared to 97 percent in the EU. In rural areas, fixed broadband covered 78 percent of homes, according to the EC. At the same time, Next Generation Access capable of providing at least 30 Mbps download was available to 66 percent of homes, close to the 62 percent EU average. Romanians are less inclined to buy online than other Europeans, - only 8 percent of them have done so, compared to the EU average of 47 percent. And only 1 percent of Romanians bought goods or services online from other countries, while the EU average on this segment is of 12 percent. A newly developed Digital Skills Indicator shows that, in 2012, 85 percent of Romanians had low or no digital skills, compared to 47 percent for the EU average. Disadvantaged people in Romania, such as individuals who are aged 55-74, low educated and/or unemployed, retired or inactive in are less highly digitally skilled than is average in the EU, according to the scoreboard. The full country sheet for Romania is here (in pdf, in English). More information about Romania under the Digital Agenda Scoreboard program can be found online here. editor@romania-insider.com