One tenth of Maltese have cell phone but no fixed line

Nine per cent of Maltese have mobile phone access but no fixed line.

Although Malta boasts the lowest percentage of people who rely on mobile phone access only, the percentage has risen by a substantial six per cent since last year.

This emerges from a Eurobarometer survey which included 500 Maltese respondents.

80% of Maltese households have dual access to both mobile and fixed lines, compared to 62% of households in the EU 27. Just over a quarter of EU27 households have mobile phone access only (27%), the same proportion as in spring 2011.

In seven countries, the rate of mobile only access is higher than 50%, with Finland (80%) and Czech Republic (78%) exhibiting the highest rates.

Ten Member States witnessed significant increases in mobile only access since spring 2011. Cyprus ( 10), Latvia ( 9), Slovenia ( 7), Malta ( 6) and Austria ( 5) boasted the largest increases. Sweden and Malta show the lowest levels of mobile only telephone access, with 2% and 9%, respectively.

The highest levels of households with a fixed telephone line are Sweden (98%), Malta (91%) and Germany (89%) while lowest levels appear in the Czech Republic (20%) and Finland (20%). On the other hand, 88% of Maltese respondents had access to a mobile phone, a drop of 5% since last year.

Malta also registered one of the largest increases in respondents reporting an inability to connect to the mobile network. The survey shows that 26% of Maltese experience cuts while calling on their mobile, an increase of 9% since last year. Respondents from the Czech Republic (85%), Cyprus (82%), Greece (81%) and Hungary (81%) were most likely to agree that their mobile communication never cuts off while on a call.

Along with Greece Malta experienced the  greatest decreases in computer ownership.  While in debt stricken Greece computer ownership decreased by 8 points in Malta it decreased by seven points.

In the EU 27 the percentage  of households with Internet access has increased by two points since spring 2011. The Member States with the largest increases in Internet access are the Czech Republic ( 6) and the United Kingdom ( 6). The largest decreases in access occurred in Malta (-6) and Greece (-5).

In Malta 61% of respondents had access to the internet, three points lower than the EU 27 average.

Respondents were also asked why they do not have an internet connection.

Lack of knowledge about the internet is highest, as a reason for not having Internet access, in Spain (22%), Malta (14%), Romania (13%) and Luxembourg (12%).

The proportion of respondents who report that their mobile phone subscription allows them to access the Internet ( 1) has increased marginally.

The largest increases in mobile Internet access are in the United Kingdom ( 6), Slovenia ( 6), Finland ( 6), Malta ( 6) and Luxembourg ( 5).  27% of Maltese respondents now have access to the internet on their mobile. This is still below the 35% EU wide average.

The Maltese were also the least likely to face difficulties in downloading stuff on the internet.

The highest incidence of difficulties with downloading was found in Romania (59%), Luxembourg (51%) and Finland (50%), where more than half of internet users reported such problems. The lowest rate of problems was reported in Malta, where only 15% of respondents noted these difficulties.

Switching from one internet provider to another is least common in Luxembourg and Malta, where 81% and 80% of respondents, respectively, have not considered switching.

On average, just 8% of EU households are active switchers, changing providers. This type of consumer is most common in the United Kingdom (12%) and Germany (11%), but even in these countries the vast majority of consumers do not change providers. The rates of active switchers is lowest  in Malta (3%), Latvia (3%), Cyprus (3%) and Romania (1%).