DECREASES, HOWEVER, IN THE INTERNET GROWTH RATE WITH REGARD TO 2001, AND IN THE NUMBER OF HOME PCS
In the first half of the year, according to data obtained by the EUSTAT for the second quarter of 2002, 37,000 persons aged 15 and over –8%- obtained access to the Internet at home. In 2001, a year of considerable growth, the six monthly growth rate came to over 6 percent, this rate falling to 2 percent in the first six months of 2002. In addition, slightly under 12,000 persons installed a computer at home for the first time. This means that compared with the evolution in Internet connections, most of those who bought new equipment did so to substitute or complement old equipment.
Almost four in five persons own a mobile phone –77.2%-, two percent growth with regard to the 4th quarter of 2001. The rate of growth also fell, as growth in the year 2001 was around five percent every six months. This equipment appears to have stabilised among persons in families with children, with a penetration rate of 91%, while the rate grew 16% in the last semester among persons who live in isolation or in families with no nucleus –with a rate of 35% and 18% among couples with no children at home –a penetration rate of 59.5% -.
With regard to the number of persons in homes with access to the Internet, the A.C. of the Basque Country –with 29%- is above the rates for Spain –23%- and even France –26%-. However, it is still 7 percent below the European average –36.1%- and at half the rate of countries like Sweden –64%-, Holland or Denmark –59%-.
In addition, 31% of Alaveses aged 15 and over have access to the Internet at home, as do 29% of Gipuzcoanos and 28% Vizcainos. These figures represent 13% growth in the last semestre in Álava, 11% in Gipuzkoa and 4% in Bizkaia.
With regard to PCs and mobile phones, Alaveses show better rates: 52% for the former and 79% the latter, with growth of almost 5% in both cases. Access to PCs for the other Provinces is similar for both –around 48%-, while with regard to mobile phones Vizcainos have a similar rate to Alaveses with 78%, and Gipuzcoanos are slightly behind with 75%. The number of persons with access to a PC at home grew almost 2% in Gipuzkoa and hardly varied for the number of Vizcaínos, who also had, however, the highest rate of renewal or upgrading of equipment in the family.
4.4% growth in the number of Internet users in the first six months of 2002.
Parallel to the decrease in the rhythm of access to PCs and Internet at home, there was also a slow down in the growth in the number of Internet users –4.4%-, whereas it was 19% in the second semester of 2001, it had been 26% in the first.
The proportion of users excluding those who connect sporadically –monthly or more often– came to 28.5%, point eight percent below the last data offered by the EGM (average from October 2001 to May 2002), which placed the A.C. of the Basque Country at the head of the ranking of Internet users in the whole of Spain.
10.4% increase in Internet users who purchase through the Internet
Although there was a slight fall in the number of Internet users enquiring about e-commerce (-3%), the number who made a purchase grew 10.4%, which represents a total of almost 100,000 Internet users.