Report "The Networked Society"

The National Observatory of Telecommunications and the Information Society has been the body in charge of carrying out the report “La Sociedad en Red”. The report shows that 88% of Spanish households with the Internet have broadband connections, exceeding the European average, and 24.3 million citizens aged 10 and over have ever accessed the Internet. The latter figure sets the percentage of Internet users over the population at more than 60.5%, more than 10 points above the European average of 50.1%.

The year-on-year growth rate in recent years is around 9-10%, which has meant an increase of 1.6 million Spanish Internet users in 2008 compared to 2007. Worldwide, there are 1,596 million Internet users, with a penetration of 23.8%.

The inclusion of the Information Technology (IT) sector in Spain and the Digital Content sector should be highlighted as a novelty in this year’s report.

From the conclusions that are drawn, it should be noted that total spending on the Internet maintains the upward trend in this last year, with a total of 1,979 million euros. Internet access remains predominant from the desktop with 83.5% of households connected, while access from the laptop has grown to 34.5% of households in 2008. It also highlights the position reached by mobile phones within the framework of ICT. The mobile phone is confirmed as one of the ICT services with the greatest penetration among the Spanish population and is the main access tool to the Information Society in the world.

In the business context, it should be noted that Spain is one of the top places in the EU-27 ranking in terms of the percentage of companies with Internet access that connect via broadband.

These are some of the conclusions that are drawn from the reading of the Report. For more information, it is recommended to contact the Web page of the National Observatory of Telecommunications and the Information Society.