Nearly Half of EU Internet Users Would Swap ISP for Faster Broadband

The European Commission (EC) has revealed that 45% of EU citizens would upgrade their broadband connection or swap ISP entirely to get faster internet speeds. Separately another 40% said that they found it difficult to access internet content and services due to “insufficient speed or download capacity“.

The results form part of the EU’s annual E-Communications Household Survey. But for some reason the full report won’t be published for another few weeks and has today instead been given somewhat of a mish-mashed summary with all the useful details missing.

Neelie Kroes, EC Vice President, said:

“Consumers increasingly care about their internet being fast enough to watch videos, for example. And for those who run businesses from their home, speed is also a competitiveness issue. Consumers now focus on both speed and price when making their choices.”

The research also found that the censorship of online videos was the “most annoying net neutrality / copyright issue” for consumers. Similarly 20% said they sometimes found it difficult to access online content or had apps blocked on mobile phones (up 4% on December 2011), which was more likely to occur when trying to watch videos (42%), listen to music (22%), download video content for free (22%), watch live events (20%) or play online games (19%).

Elsewhere 34% of adults now use internet-based voice (VoIP) calling services (up from 27% in 2012), although only 24% of respondents felt that internet calls delivered “very good” sound quality.

Other Survey Highlights

• 44% of households have at least one mobile internet subscription (up from 30% in 2012).

• 45% of households purchase a bundle of communications services (eg a combination of television, broadband, phone, mobile services) from the same provider (45%).

• 40% (of the 45% of households) have considered changing their bundle provider, but 29% say it is it is not easy to compare the terms of bundle packages.

The survey itself was reportedly completed in March 2013 with the help of 27,786 respondents (face-to-face interviews at home) from different countries and various “representative” social / demographic groups of the EU population.