The Internet survey (discontinued in Statistics Norway), 2002

By the end of 2002 the number of broadband subscriptions in Norway made up 158,000, an increase of almost 40 per cent since the end of the 3^{r d} quarter.

The number of broadband subscriptions increased evenly during the year 2002. From the 1^{s t} quarter to the 2^{n d} the increase was 49 per cent, from the 2^{n d} to the 3^{r d}- 47 per cent and from the 3^{r d} to the 4^{t h}- 40 per cent. In this survey broadband is defined as Internet subscriptions with a transmission capacity (rate of speed in) larger than 384 kbit per second.

Minor changes in subscription types

By the end of the 4^{t h} quarter of 2002 the number of Internet subscriptions in Norway amounted to 3.4 million. Only half of these were active, i.e. had been used during the last quarter or were broadband subscriptions.

When the subscriptions are divided in different kinds of subscriptions, the difference between the business market and the private market is explicit. Subscriptions with an Internet connection via analogue modem and ISDN made up 72 and 15 per cent of all active subscriptions in the business market. For the private market these kinds of subscriptions constituted about 40 per cent each. This structure has been quite stable throughout the year. The portion of broadband subscriptions was by the end of the year about 10 per cent both in the business market and the private market. The growth has been most significant in the private market where the increase went from 7.4 per cent in the 3^{r d} quarter to 9.7 per cent in the 4^{t h} quarter.

More municipalities have broadband

While 280 of 434 municipalities had few or no broadband subscriptions by the end of the 3^{r d} quarter, this figure decreased to 258 municipalities by the end of the 4^{t h} quarter. The geographical distribution of broadband is among other things connected to the possibility of taking advantage of technologies like cable, ADSL, etc.

The statistics only include subscriptions provided by commercial Internet service providers.

In some cases the municipalities provide free Internet for the inhabitants. An example is the municipality of Modalen where all households are offered broadband. This kind of subscriptions is not included in the statistics.

In order to see the correlation between the centrality of the municipalities and the number of broadband subscriptions, it can be useful to classify the municipalities by Statistics Norway's Standard Classification of Municipalities. Clearly, the most central municipalities have the highest number of broadband subscriptions relative to the number of households.

Both private persons and businesses may have several Internet subscriptions and several private persons use the same subscription. The number of subscriptions is therefore not the same as the number of households/businesses with Internet access. When it comes to broadband, however, there is reason to expect an almost one-to-one relationship between subscriptions and households. This is why broadband subscriptions are displayed in per cent of households in the municipalities.

¹New revised article is released 11 May 2004.

Tables:

• Table 1 Private Internet subscriptions. Subscription by transmission capacity and county. 4th quarter 2002
• Table 2 Business Internet subscriptions. Subscription by transmission capacity and county. 4th quarter 2002
• Table 3 Private Internet subscriptions. Development features. Subscription by transmission capacity and county. 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarter 2002
• Table 4 Business Internet subscriptions. Development features. Subscription by transmission capacity and county. 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarter 2002
• Table 5 Active Internet subscriptions totally and broadband. Business and private subscriptions, by municipality. 4th quarter 2002