ICT usage in enterprises, 1999

66 per cent of Norwegian enterprises with 10 or more persons employed had access to the Internet by the end of 1999. The number increased sharply during last year and was up from 40 per cent by the end of 1998. According to reported plans, access to the net will continue to grow also this year. Another 11 per cent of the enterprises are planning to link up to the Internet in 2000.

The relative number of Internet users is dependent on the size of the enterprises. By the end of last year 87 per cent of enterprises with 100 or more persons employed had access to the net. In enterprises with 10-19 persons employed the relative number was 58 per cent. The survey also included a small sample of the smallest enterprises with less than 10 persons employed. In this group only 33 per cent had access to the Internet by the end of 1999.

Internet most frequent in banking and financial services

The highest relative number of access is found within banking and financial services. In this industry group 93 per cent of the enterprises were on the net by end 1999, followed by wholesale trade and manufacturing with a relative number of 78 and 75 per cent respectively. At the lower end, only 38 per cent of enterprises within retail trade reported access to Internet. A low number of Internet users were also found in hotels and restaurants with 53 per cent. However, plans for Internet installation in 2000 are above average in both these industry groups.

In the county of Troms 77 per cent of the enterprises had access to Internet by the end of 1999, followed by Akershus and Oslo with 74 and 72 per cent respectively. In Finnmark and Hedmark on the other hand, the relative number of Internet using enterprises was significantly below average, with 48 per cent in Finnmark and 51 per cent in Hedmark. According to reported plans Hedmark will be catching up on the country average, with 16 per cent new Internet users during 2000. In Finnmark the plans for 2000 are on the country average of 11 per cent.

The county differences will partly be explained by variations in industrial structure and size of the enterprises between the counties.

Fear of hacking and viruses

Loss of working hours and fear of hacking and viruses are the barriers most frequently reported for not being on the Internet. 15 and 14 per cent of the enterprises give these reasons great importance for not having access to the net. Costs connected to development and maintenance are also reported an important barrier. On the other hand, only 3 per cent of the enterprises report "too technically complicated" as an important reason for not using the Internet.

In many enterprises only a smaller part of the PCs is connected to the Internet. Only in one out of three enterprises all PCs were linked to the net by the end of 1999. In 45 per cent of the enterprises less than half of the PCs were on the net.

In the above results, the relative number of Internet access is measured by the number of enterprises. However, the larger enterprises with the highest number of access weigh more heavily in total employment. Therefore, 82 per cent of the total number of persons employed were working in enterprises with access to the Internet by the end of 1999.

Purposes for using Internet and use of electronic commerce were also covered in the survey. Results relating to these aspects will be published 7 March and 14 March respectively.