Internet and e-commerce in Austria

Today, we are to talk about one of the Central European countries Austria, bordering Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The country’s capital, Vienna, is one of the most wonderful cities in the world. The country has developed a high standard of living, and in 2008 was ranked 14th in the world for its Human Development Index. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, joined the EU in 1995, and is a founder of the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development). Austria also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the European currency in 1999. We are to consider the Internet and e-commerce infrastructure in Austria to find what stage of development the country is currently on. 

As for the broadband market, Internet access is typically represented by DSL and cable, with DSL sector, which rapidly overtook cable as the preferred access method, dominating on the market. There are 37 internet service providers in Austria. The leading cable ISP is UPC Austria, offering cable access under the Chello brand and also DSL access as Inode. The other main cable ISPs are Tele2, and Kabelsignal offering cable services in the area south of Vienna. 

At the same time the leadership in DSL sector is captured by Telekom Austria, partly through its reluctance to co-operate with local loop unbundling; so the operator has a great share of the Austrian DSL market. Some cable and DSL contracts offer discounts for university students. 

Austria’s market for converged media gets advantages from excellent Internet network, as well as a strong TV market. Thus, cable and DSL network supports popular demand for such digital services as triple play offerings including IPTV and interactive TV that have been available since 2006, with three multiplexes assigned to national and regional services and a one more reserved for mobile broadcasting. 

Besides, country’s Internet market includes such modern technologies as SDSL, xDSL, leased lines, cable modems, FttH, powerline broadband, WiFi, Internet via satellite and also mobile Internet.

Fibre-optic coverage is spreading supplying the appearance of full range of internet services, as well as telephone services, that are getting more and more available through the network. There are two Intelsat satellite earth stations in Austria supporting international communications, (one Atlantic Ocean and one Indian Ocean), and one more is Eutelsat satellite earth station. 

As for the mobile Internet, mainly offered by Telecom Austria, it reflected enormous growth over the recent years, though mobile TV, reaching 50% of the population by August 2008, has yet to make a mark on consumers. Thus, the variety of mobile services using UMTS/HSDPA is rapidly increasing due to strong market competition. 

Austria’s national Internet top-level domain, or ccTLD, is .at or .co.at Two year registration agreement for .uk ccTLD costs just $99 that is considerably lower the prices in the other European countries($139 in Denmark, $220 in Netherlands or $270 in Luxemburg) (http://www.rwgusa.com).

As for the penetration rate growth it made up just 166.7% for the period of 2000-2008, while in some European countries growth accounted, for instance, 1225% in Turkey or 630% in Hungary, according to internetworldstats.com data. Nevertheless by the end of 2008 the volume of Internet subscribers reached 5,601,700, or 68.3%. That may be compared to 2,100,000 users, or 26%, in 2000 that climbed to 3,730,000, or 45.7 %, by 2004. Thus, currently more than halve of Austrians are actively using Internet. Currently Internet supplying policy in the country is shifting from infrastructure development to ICT use and online service promotion, so, computer literacy is continuously growing. 

Concerning the places, Austrian citizens get Internet access, the most popular is home that takes the first place, with over 47% share, while connection at work has about 29% taking the second position. And the rest of about 10% is divided between the places of education and PIAP (Personal Internet Access Points).

As for the reasons Austrians are using the Internet the leading positions are occupied by the targets of sending emails and looking for information about goods and services, followed by internet banking, reading online newspapers/magazines and playing/downloading games and music. Listening to the web radio/watching web TV and Internet telephoning or videoconferencing are on the last places for Austria’s citizens, though they are still popular.  

 Moreover, the usage of ICT has become increasingly important for enterprises. According to the survey of over 3,450, Austrian enterprises with at least 10 employees conducted by STATISTICS AUSTRIA, in 2008 97% of them used the Internet. The trend of having faster connections to access the Internet is also gaining ground. While 76% of the enterprises already use broadband to access the Internet, the proportion of ISDN connections and analogue modems is further rapidly declining. Indicative of basic and specialist ICT skills as well as enterprise broadband connectivity led to a great success in applying to the Web in business. 

Along with such a tendency of Internet adoption, more and more enterprises are using Internet to present their business online. Thus, by 2008, 79% of all Austrian enterprises already had created their own websites. Besides the advantages of attracting new customers and partners via the Internet, the Web also remains an important way of contacting public authorities.

Austria has been ranked in the EU top 5 by a new European Commission report. The country has streamlined exchange between suppliers, distributors and partners through steady adoption of external e-business practices. With 51.5% of enterprises making purchases online, Austria ranks 9th over all for eCommerce in the EU.  

 It’s interesting, but 80% of all enterprises in the country usually apply to online e-government services. With eGovernance model, Austria also has hopeful indicators in education. Headed by the eHealth program of 2005, Austria now ranks 3rd in the EU for fully online public services for citizens and 1st for enterprises, according to Economist Intelligence Unit. Low level use of these services by both citizens and enterprises, however, must be addressed through eInclusion programs.  

Looking ahead, it’s necessary to notice that, with such a great potential in ICT and e-commerce development this small country will probably soon appear to be at the same stage the most developed countries currently are. Moreover, eGovernance model provides with the hopes of success in Internet and e-business progress in Austria.