Digital Agenda: Europeans prefer all in one 'packages' for internet, phone and TV

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  98% of EU households have television. The most popular means of TV reception is cable (35%) followed by digital terrestrial (30%, an increase of 7 percentage points since November-December 2009).

Bundles - packaged telecoms services

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  42% of households subscribe to a "bundled" service, while 61% of all internet access and half of fixed telephony services are purchased as part of a bundle.

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  41% of households said the main advantage of these packages was the convenience of having a single service provider and a single invoice. 33% believed that a bundle is cheaper than paying for each service separately.

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  However, 16% consider that bundles offer some services they do not need and another 10% raise concerns about the lack of transparency and clarity in relation to the cost and conditions of each service.

Switching services

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  Six out of ten households say they have never considered switching to another service provider.

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  77% of households are 'inertial', that is they would never switch their bundle. 12% of households are "active switchers" and another 12% would like to switch but are hindered for one reason or another.

Among the obstacles to switching are the risk of a temporary loss of service, the risk of having to pay for more than one provider during the switching process and the lack of clarity about the steps required for switching.

Quality of services a major concern

In addition to the problems found with internet connection speeds and connection breakdowns, one in four respondents reports difficulties in connecting to the mobile network and a similar proportion reports that mobile communications have been cut off whilst on a call.

Concerns about affordability of mobile and smartphone use

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  65% of respondents are now limiting their mobile calls due to concerns about the costs (up 4% since the last survey of November-December 2009)

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  Half of those with Internet access on their smartphone limit their use due to worries about cost.

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  Calling over the Internet for free or at a cheap rate, from a computer or a WiFi-connected device, is growing, with 28% of households with Internet access making this type of voice call, a 6% increase since the last survey.

Mobile only

27% of households only have access to the public telephone network from a mobile phone - a proportion which has increased in 17 Member States since the last survey and which reaches levels higher than 50% of households in five countries (the Czech Republic, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia).

What is the Commission doing?

The Commission has asked the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) to undertake a rigorous fact-finding exercise on barriers to changing operators, blocking or "throttling" internet traffic (for example voice over Internet services), transparency and quality of service. The Commission will publish evidence from BEREC's investigation by the end of 2011, including any instances of blocking or throttling certain types of traffic. If BEREC's findings and other feedback indicate outstanding problems, the Commission will assess the need for more stringent measures (IP/11/486).

The Commission is also conducting a study to compare advertised and actual internet speeds. Data will be available at the end of 2011.

For more information:

The full survey can be found at:

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/ecomm/library/ext_studies/index_en.htm and

http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/whatsnew2011_en.htm

Digital Agenda website:

http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda

Neelie Kroes' website: http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/kroes/

Follow Neelie Kroes on Twitter: http://twitter.com/neeliekroeseu

Annex

Penetration rates for key telecom services