300,000 Slovaks consider Internet connections
Approximately 70% of Slovak Internet users who are not currently connected to the world wide web at home would consider establishing an Internet connection in their house - a possible 300,000 new users - a poll conducted by the research agency Taylor Nelson Sofres Factum Slovakia (TNS) has shown.
About 20% of Internet users are not considering an Internet connection at home, while 12.6% of respondents were undecided. The poll also showed that more than four out of five Slovak citizens are aware of the Internet, while 12.7% use it regularly.
The survey, carried out in December 2000 and answered by 1,048 people over the age of 18, shows that a typical user of the Internet in Slovakia is a young man or woman with university education or who is still a university student. The income of his/her family is above the average wage (11,000 Slovak crowns), and he or she resides in a major city or in the Bratislava or Košice regions.
The largest number of active Internet users are in a group up to 29 years of age. Knowledge and use of the Internet is dependent on education, with 100% of those polled holding a university degree having knowledge of the Internet. Two-thirds of total Internet access is in the workplace, the poll showed, and 28% at schools.
The Internet itself was also evaluated by the respondents, with more than 90% of them considering it an effective source of information and nearly two-thirds of those using it considering it a means for promoting products or ideas. One fifth see the Internet as something designed merely for computer fanatics.
However, a large number of respondents said that the cost of Internet use, and especially connection fees, were high.
Compiled by Ed Holt from SITA
