Greece Faces Widespread Connectivity Challenges

Greece’s recent surge of prosperity has not translated into a high ranking on the 2009 Connectivity Scorecard.  Part of this can be attributed to weak consumer infrastructure, characterized by low fixed line and broadband penetration.  This is despite the relatively high proliferation of mobile services.  Consumer internet usage is amongst the lowest in the sample for Innovation Economies, falling behind less economically advanced Eastern European nations.

PC penetration in the business world ranks last amongst all countries surveyed, and the number of corporations buying and selling online is equally low.  Greek companies do tend to frequently access government services over the internet at a much greater rate than private citizens, but overall the government’s offerings are below average.  In general, the Greek ICT sector is not a major component of the overall economy, and regulatory hurdles have prevented Greece from keeping pace with other European nations in terms of connectivity.

Greece Connectivity Performance by Scorecard Component