Nearly one in two households in the Netherlands has a broadband Internet connection making the Dutch the clear leaders in Europe, according to a survey unveiled on Monday. The number of broadband subscribers in the Netherlands grew 63 percent in 2004 to 3.16 million households, Dutch research and consultancy group Telecompaper said. Broadband penetration increased to 44.8 percent of households at the end of December 2004 from 27.5 percent at end-2003.
"World-wide, the Netherlands is now only behind South Korea and ahead of Hong Kong," Telecompaper head Ed Achterberg said.
Heavy competition and subsequent low prices will increase the Dutch broadband customer base by another 40 percent in 2005 to around 4.4 million fast Internet connections, or 62 percent of households, Telecompaper estimates.
In 2003, the Netherlands ranked neck and neck for leading broadband usage with two other Web-savvy nations, Finland and Sweden.
In Sweden, 31 percent of households had a broadband connection in late 2004, up from 24 percent by late 2003.
Finland targets 1 million broadband connections in 2005 from a total of 2.2 million households.
High prices have been a factor in preventing many Europeans from getting high-speed Internet access, a problem for the EU, which wants to make the Internet the main medium for the transmission of information by 2010.
Broadband connections of 1 megabyte per second cost Europeans on average 70 euros ($92.44) a month last October, according to a recent study published by the Finnish Communications Ministry, although prices in general have been coming down.
The Dutch enjoyed one of the cheapest rates at 32 euros per month, while prices in Ireland, Latvia and Portugal were around the 200-euro level. The lowest rates were in Estonia, where the average price was at 22 euros.