Greek internet usage is the lowest in the EU

So I have moved to the country in the EU with the lowest use of the internet, according to some statistics released last week by Eurostat. As someone who relies on the internet to earn their money, that is either a very stupid move or a good business opportunity - time will tell which, I guess.

Only just over a quarter of Greek people have ever used the internet, and less than a fifth of the population use the internet on a weekly basis. 73% of Greeks have never used it, and only 1% of the country has broadband access at home.

The blame for a lot of this is being placed here at the door of the national state-controlled telecoms monopoly OTE. My experience of trying to get a connection set up here didn't do much to counter that theory. Once the paperwork is done it takes twenty days to get a simple phone-line installed, before you can even consider upgrading it to carry ADSL. There are only a handful of broadband operators in the country, and the majority of packages only offer speeds in the 300kb region, at a greater cost than that I was used to in the UK.

Looking at the figures, I'm reflecting that instead of being in the UK and dealing with the 'digital divide' of set-top box have and have-nots, the 'digital divide' here seems to be between Greece and the rest of the EU.

Posted by Martin Belam, April 20, 2006    
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