II.7. Broadband Internet II.7.1. Status Comparison of data obtained from researches14 shows that in most optimistic conditions, only 1/3 of citizens use the Internet (regardless of the type of access – home, at work, internet café, school, university, mobile device). If the indicators “internet penetration” according to the EU standards15 would be used, it can be concluded that this percentage of internet users additionally would decline. This represents a significant delay in relation to the growth of internet users on the rank of EU. Although there are no precise statistical data, it can be concluded that the real percentage of penetration of broadband internet (percentage of households having broadband internet connection) in the Republic of Macedonia is on a lower level than the EU member country ranked on the last place (2%). Out of several important events, legal acts and projects that had positive impact on improving the status in this field, the following ones are worth mentioning: • • • • Adoption of the Law on Electronic Communications which provided for increased competition. The adoption of the National Strategy for the development of Information Society in the Republic of Macedonia with the respective Action Plan which resulted with increase of quality of e-services to citizens. MKConnects16, a USAID project implemented by the provider OnNet17 enabled complete connection in the network of all schools on the entire territory of the Republic of Macedonia, regardless of their geographical position. At the same time it ensured competition on the market of broadband internet by installation of a parallel backbone network and access to users via modern technology which does not depend on the copper of the incumbent operator (MakTel). In addition to ADSL access provided by Macedonian Telecommunications, competition occurred on the market for broadband internet in the past period from cable operators and remaining providers, but also from informal urban WiFi18 networks. In addition to positive effects such as the increased number of users of broadband internet, there are also reasons due to which this growth is disproportionally low compared to EU standards: 14 http://www.stat.gov.mk/ (not available in electronic form), http://www.metamorphosis.org.mk/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=10&Itemid=16 (second part of the site), http://217.16.95.5/new/docs/Internet_and_Computer_Usage_%20Report_%20MK.pdf 15 http://www.sibis-eu.org/files/Sibis_Indicator_Handbook.pdf 16 www.mkconnects.org.mk 17 http://www.on.net.mk 18 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wifi Page 20 of 40