ACCORDING to international computer surveys, Cyprus is poised for rapid growth in high-speed Internet use.
The survey pinpointed the 10 new countries joining the EU and singled out Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta and Cyprus as countries with a big challenge in enhancing issues like competitive telecommunication services and implementing rules on local loop unbundling to meet EU standards.
With Slovakia still a little behind than the other newly appointed member states – due to the late introduction of market access to broadband — Latvia, Lithuania, Malta and Cyprus all have average broadband penetration rates but are small and offer few opportunities for outside providers, according to a report drafted by Yankee Group and published by the IDG News Service.
Given these incentives to equalise competition in their markets, as well as a healthy dose of EU funding for technological development, the accession countries are in a position to make up for their lagging broadband usage rates. All 10 new members had an overall broadband penetration rate of 1.9 per cent at the end of 2003 compared to the 12 per cent average in the other 15 member states.
Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (CYTA) spokesman, Paris Menelaou, says that planning is already on the way: “There are plans to expand the broadband width for all rural areas of Cyprus and obviously EU funding will help us reach that target.”
Netymology Ltd is a Cypriot based company specialising in web design, e-commerce websites, web applications for content management, interface design, identity and branding. One of the Technology Directors of the company, Adrian Cleave, believes that Cyprus needs to come up to scratch with other factors in the industry as well.
“The reliability of the Internet speed service in Cyprus is not up to par but, when it does work, the connection speed is quite decent. Because of the way the island is connected, the latency is very poor.”
Asked whether he believed EU funding would help, Cleave replied, “I don’t believe that lack of funds is a problem here, rather it is down to slow market acceptance. The EU funding, however, might allow the service providers to drop the prices so more people can subscribe to broadband.”
However, despite lagging behind other EU states, all 10 new countries do have the potential of catching up with their neighbours or overtaking them over the next five years according to Yankee Group.
Adrian Cleave reiterates that fact for Cyprus: ”Although Cyprus has a small population, I believe the infrastructure in general is very good so I believe Cyprus will reach the EU requirements in the near future.”
