SLOVAK households are considerably behind EU households in the use of information technology (IT).
According to the European Commission's latest Eurobarometer poll of the prevalence of electronic communications technology in households, only 5 percent of Slovak homes have broadband Internet access, compared to the European average of 23 percent.
Slovakia is also below the European average in modem connections to the Internet. While 16 percent of households in the EU connect to the Internet via modems, in Slovakia it is just 6 percent, the SITA news agency wrote.
In the category of broadband Internet connections, Slovakia finished second from the bottom within the 25-member EU. Only Greece scored worse, with only 2 percent of Greek households having a broadband Internet connection.
Slovakia's neighbours are all better off: the Czech Republic reported that 10 percent of households had broadband Internet connections, while in Hungary it was 11 percent and in Poland 13 percent.
The leader in the broadband segment was Belgium with 38 percent.
The Eurobarometer poll also discovered that 7 percent of Slovak households have no telephone service, either fixed or mobile, against the EU average of 3 percent. Poland reported the highest ratio of households without telephone connections at 10 percent.
- Martina Jurínová
4. Sep 2006 at 0:00
