88% of Cypriot enterprises have Internet

Landlines in decline

Eight-eight percent of enterprises in Cyprus have access to the Internet, while 94% of them have at least one computer, according to new data from the Statistical Service.

This compares with only 43% of households with a computer and 29% with Internet access.

However, the data also show that Internet usage has been on the rise.

In 2000, only 14% of households had Internet access, compared with 29% in 2004.

This is reflected in a rise in the total number of Internet Service Provider subscriptions, up from 86 per 1,000 people in 2000 to 119 in 2004.

Dial-up connection, ie the slow one, was still the most prevalent in 2004, at 72.4 per thousand. However, more people have DSL, the faster kind of connection, than ISDN, which is a little slower.

DSL subscriptions in 2004 were 19.7 per 1,000, compared with ISDN at 7.9.

The increase in the use of mobile phones, thanks not least to very cheap charges compared with elswhere in Europe, is reflected in an increase to 855 mobile subscriptions per 1,000 from 313 in 2000.

Analogue (landline) subscriptions have actually fallen as a proportion of the population, to 558 per 1,000 in 2004 from 631 per 1,000 in 2000.

Fiona Mullen