Mobile industry

CIS has been growing much faster than other areas. Its mobile penetration rate in 2003 was merely 17.9 per cent, but it has drastically increased to 93 per cent in 2007.

The CIS average growth rate between 2002 and 2007 is 60 per cent, which is much higher than other sub regions in Europe. The main reasons of the high growth of mobile service are the area’s poor fixed line network and increased competition in the mobile market, which has resulted in low prices for mobile services.

The total number of main telephone lines in Europe & CIS has slightly decreased. The fast growing mobile penetration with almost unchanged fixed line penetration shows that many users choose to have access to a mobile phone only.

CIS is the fastest growing subregion. The gaps between CIS and other subregions have decreased drastically.

The annual growth rate of mobile phone penetration in CIS is higher than other subregions, but many countries are still falling behind many of other countries in the world, except few countries, Russia and Ukraine.

Fixed line industry

The annual growth rate of mobile phone penetration in the CIS is higher than other subregions, but many countries are still falling behind the rest of the world, with the exception of Russia and Ukraine.

The general fixed industry in Europe has been saturated. Moreover, it shows a slight negative growth. But different from other subregions in Europe, fixed line penetration in CIS has grown, even though it is not significant.

The difference in main fixed line infrastructure between urban and rural areas in the CIS, is significant. Merely 17 per cent of fixed lines are deployed in rural areas while 82.9 per cent are in urban areas

Additionally, only about 12 people out of 100 subscribe to main line services. This means that residents in rural areas are not able to utilize the benefits of developing ICTs.

Internet Industry

The average penetration rate in Europe & CIS is far ahead of the world average of 22 per cent, but it is mainly due to the high rate of Western Europe area. When it comes to the CIS, the subregion falls behind world average.

Although the growth rate has decreased recently, the number of Internet users is still growing steadily. Relatively higher number of Internet users are enjoying services via mobile broadband connection. The Internet subscriber penetration rate has drastically increased over the past few years. This has been resulted from mainly higher competition level among operators and development of mobile broadband technologies.

In most CIS countries, the proportion of broadband lines used to deliver Internet services is definitely low. This means that most Internet users are suffering from slow internet services delivered mainly through narrowband lines such as dial-up.

When it comes to Internet penetration the CIS, is behind with most countries having penetration rates less than 20 per cent, in some countries which is far below developed countries.

Distribution of ICT

Compared to its portion of population, Europe & CIS has relatively higher distribution of major ICTs. It suggests that the penetration rates of major ICTs in the area higher than other regions in the world.

Business using ICTs

These are examples of CIS countries. In general, most of countries in the subregion have a lower percentage of ICT business users in their subscribers than that of other developed countries. For instance, 97 per cent of businesses in France are using the Internet while 98 per cent of businesses in Japan are using the Internet. This low rate of using ICTs can aggravate the lagging economies in the CIS area.

As mentioned above, most of the internet services are delivered via dial-up. The opposite chart gives one example of the proportion for businesses accessing Internet by mode of access.