Europeans increasingly want more mobile bandwidth...
Europeans increasingly want more mobile bandwidth but are worried about the cost, the European Commission said Tuesday. Its latest e-communications household survey (http://bit.ly/13gURIK) polled nearly 27,000 people across the then 27 EU countries and Croatia face-to-face at home in March.…
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It found that while mobile phones are everywhere, only half are smartphones due to fears about high charges. The subscription rate of smartphones in Sweden, Denmark, the U.K., Finland, France and the Netherlands was 55 percent compared to below 35 percent in Belgium, Greece, Hungary, Cyprus, Romania, Bulgaria and Portugal, it said. More than half of citizens limit calls to national and international numbers from their mobiles, it said. Broadband access at home, however, is a reality for almost 73 percent of households, up from 67.3 percent in 2011, it said. The survey also found that the line between phone and Internet is blurring fast, with 34 percent of respondents now making VoIP calls. Ensuring that consumer expectations can be met at an affordable price is one of the goals of the “connected continent” package the EC will unveil in September, Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes said.