New Data from Information Society in Portugal Surveys 2007

Results from the 2007 edition of three surveys conducted by UMIC - Knowledge Society Agency,PI – namely use of ICTs by Central Government, Regional Government and Municipal Councils – are being published for the first time. The percentage of answers in the three surveys, which were carried out between September and November 2007, was impressively high: 87%, 100% and 93% respectively.

Included in this series of published data are the results of the surveys conducted in 2007 by the INE – National Statistics Institute in conjunction with Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) on family ICT use and company ICT use in the first quarter of 2007. The INE published partial summaries of these surveys on 4th and 5th of this month, yet this is also the first time all the data from these surveys has been published.

It also includes data on electronic communication which ANACOM obtained for the 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2007, as well as the data from 2007 on ICT education and training, which was the responsibility of the Statistics and Education Planning Office (GEPE), the Directorate-General for Statistical Information in Higher Education (DSIEES) and the Planning, Strategy, Evaluation and International Relations Office (GPEARI) of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education.

Also included is data from the most recent survey of ICT use in hospitals, which was conducted in 2006 by the INE – National Statistics Institute in conjunction with Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC). This survey is conducted every two years.

The batch of published data will provide an impressively complete overview of the state of play regarding Portugal’s progress in the Information Society. The following data is of note:

1) Regarding Central Government

• All Central Government bodies have an Internet connection, 87% with a speed of or above 512 Kbps, while 63% of bodies have connections of or above 2 Mbps and there has been 29% growth over a year for this type of connection.
• 89% of Central Government Bodies have an Internet site, while this figure is considerably higher for bodies with 50 to 249 employees (93%) and with more than 250 employees (97%) and has reached 100% for public institutes.
• In terms of the online activities carried out by Central Government bodies, there was a significant increase from 2006 to 2007 in External Communication with Citizens (the percentage of bodies performing this activity more than doubled and is now 60%), External Communication with Companies (71% increase, now 65%) and Consultation of Procurement catalogues (more than tripled, now 60%).
• The most widely available services on Central Government websites on the Internet are: information (about the body itself 98%, about the services provided 96%, legislation 95%) email (97%), forms available to download (71%), database access (62%), goods and services available in digital format free of charge (51%), forms available to fill in and submit online (49%), recruitment opportunities and employment areas (29%)).
• 38% and 20% of Central Government Bodies order and pay for orders online respectively, which corresponds to increases of 41% and 25% on the previous year respectively.
• 29%, 28% and 37% of Central Government Bodies use open source software for operating systems, Internet servers and other applications types respectively.
• In the IT security area, there was a 22% increase in the use of safe servers (shttp protocols) from 2006 to 2007 and a 16% rise in the use of anti-spam filters over the same timeframe, which means that the percentage of Central Government Bodies with these services is now 60% and 80% respectively.

2) Regarding Regional Government

• All Regional Government Bodies have an Internet connection.
• 76% and 78% of Government bodies in the Autonomous Regions of Madeira and the Azores have an Internet connection with a speed of or above 512 Kbps respectively, while 52% and 44% of bodies have connections of or above 2 Mbps respectively and there has been 73% and 76% growth over a year for this type of connection respectively.
• The percentage of Regional Government Bodies with an Internet website is 87% and 93% respectively.
• In terms of the online activities carried out by Regional Government bodies, there was a significant increase from 2006 to 2007 in External Communication with Citizens (the percentage of bodies almost doubled in the Azores and almost tripled in Madeira and is now 68% and 76% respectively), External Communication with Companies (more than tripled in the Azores and more than quadrupled in Madeira and is now 78% in the two regions) and Consultation of Procurement Catalogues (more than sevenfold increase in the Azores and almost fivefold increase in Madeira and is now 37% and 54% respectively).
• 6% of bodies in Madeira and 10% of bodies in the Azores order online.
• 10%, 7% and 20% of Regional Government Bodies in the Azores and 19%, 21% and 22% in Madeira use open source software for operating systems, Internet servers and other applications types respectively.

3) Regarding Municipal Councils

• All Municipal Councils have an Internet connection, 78% with a speed of or above 512 Kbps, while 78% have connections of or above 2 Mbps with 22% growth over a year for this type of connection.
• The Internet is essentially used in Municipal Councils as a tool for searching and communicating: searching for and collecting information/documentation (97%), email (99%) and electronic file exchange (94%). The activity that saw the most growth was eProcurement, which almost doubled, now occurring in 29% of Municipal Councils.
• 97% of Municipal Councils have their own website on the Internet.
• Services available on Municipal Council websites are dominated by email (78%), while 77% of Municipal Councils with their own website make forms available for downloading and printing, and 47% allow you to subscribe to their newsletters on the Internet.
• 51%, 36% and 47% of Municipal Councils use open source software for operating systems, Internet servers and other applications types respectively.
• 25% of Municipal Councils order online.

4) Regarding Companies

• 90% of all small, medium and large companies have Internet access, of which 77% have broadband. These figures increase to 98% and 89% for medium-sized companies, and to 100% and 97% for large companies. 99% of companies in the financial sector have Internet access, 95% of which have broadband.
• For the broadband Internet access indicator for large companies in all sectors other than the financial one, Portugal lies in 7th place in the EU27, following Cyprus, Slovenia, Spain, Finland, Austria and Belgium and neck and neck with Germany, Luxemburg, the United Kingdom and Sweden, according to EUROSTAT. For medium-sized companies in all sectors other than the financial one, Portugal lies in 9th place behind Spain, the Nordic countries, Belgium, Germany, Slovenia and Italy, also according to EUROSTAT.
• In the construction and retail sectors, there was a 33% increase in the number of companies with broadband connections from 2006 to 2007, and the percentage of construction companies with an Internet site grew 80%.
• 73% of all small, medium and large companies use the Internet to deal with the State, which corresponds to a 20% rise from 2006 to 2007. Internet use for dealing with the State has risen to 95% in the financial sector.
• 66% of small, medium and large companies from all sectors except the financial one fill in and send forms to the State online, which places Portugal in 3rd position in the EU27 for this indicator, hot on the heels of Finland and Ireland, and far above the EU27 average, which is 43%. The figure for this indicator in the financial sector has risen to 92%.

5) Regarding Families

• 90% of people who have attended higher education, 81% of people with secondary schooling and 24% of people with the 9th year of education or less use the Internet . For these indicators, Portugal lies in 5th, 7th and 21st place in the EU respectively and in the first two cases only is placed alongside the Nordic countries, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, France and the United Kingdom.
• 94% of people who have attended higher education, 88% of those with secondary schooling and 30% of people with the 9th year of schooling or less use computers respectively. These figures were 90%, 86% and 24% respectively in 2005. The most growth (12% annual average) occurred in the group with the lowest level of schooling, while the figures for the groups with secondary schooling and higher education have risen moderately, but have already hit high percentages. In actual fact, Portugal lay in 4th and 6th place of the EU27 countries in these two groups respectively in 2007. Portugal only trailed the Netherlands, Luxemburg and Sweden in the first group and only trailed these countries and two other Nordic countries in the second group, where it tied with the United Kingdom.
• 97% and 99% of students use the Internet and computers respectively. Portugal lies in 8th and 4th place of the EU27 respectively for these indicators, where it is tied with Austria, Denmark and Latvia for Internet use and level with Germany, Austria, Luxemburg and Sweden for computer use. These are signs that show the Internet and computers have been introduced efficiently in schools after Portugal was one of the pioneering countries in connecting all schools to the Internet in 2001. Also, at the beginning of 2006 it was one of the pioneering countries in Europe in terms of providing state schools with broadband connections.
• 77% of households with the Internet have a broadband connection. The number of households with broadband grew 25% last year.
• The activities that most users indicated they used the Internet for are communicating, interacting and posting content – email (84%), chats, messenger and similar (57%), posting content on websites like hi5, Myspace, Youtube or SapoVídeo (53%) –, searching for information about goods and services (83%), consulting the Internet for learning purposes (67%), searching for health-related information (45%),and obtaining information on Government bodies (42%). The biggest increases from 2005 to 2007 were recorded in videoconferencing telephoning/contacting (47% average annual growth), the development of blogs (43% average annual growth) and searching for health information (20% average annual growth).
• 67% of people use the Multibanco ATM system (the survey included data on Multibanco use in ecommerce for the first time). People use the Multibanco system for the following ecommerce transactions, among others: pay-as-you-go mobile phone top-ups (76%), payment of water, electricity, cable TV, telephone services, etc. (57%), paying for non-Internet orders (e.g. catalogue purchases (14%), paying for Internet orders (10%), buying tickets for shows (9%), buying tickets for public transport (9%)).
• The percentage of 16 to 74 year olds ordering or purchasing items on Internet pages stands at a mere 6%, despite having registered a 50% increase since 2005, and contrasts with the 33% (83% of Internet users) who search for information on goods and services on the Internet, and with those who use the Multibanco system for ecommerce (51% for mobile phone top-ups, 38% for paying for water, electricity, cable TV, telephone services, etc., 9% for non-Internet distance purchasing, 7% for paying for Internet purchases, 6% to buy tickets for shows and 6% for buying tickets for public transport, which correspond to 76%, 57%. 34%, 14%, 10%, 9% and 9% of Multibanco users respectively.
• 22% of people make payments to the State using the Multibanco system (34% of Multibanco users).
• 94% of people who have attended higher education, 88% of people with secondary schooling and 30% of people with the 9th year of education or less use computers. Portugal lies in 4th, 6th and 20th place in the EU27 respectively for these indicators.
• The most popular activities users use the Internet for are email (84%), searching for information on goods and services (83%), using the Internet for learning purposes (67%), chats, messengerand similar (57%), posting content (53%) and searching for health information (45%).

6) Regarding Hospitals (2006 data)

• 97% of hospitals have an Internet connection, mainly broadband (94%), with 38% with a connection bandwidth of or above 2 Mbps.
• Approximately 17% of hospitals with Internet connections provide inpatients with Internet access.
• The main growth areas in terms of functions available on hospital websites from 2004 to 2006 were: information on prevention and health care doubled (now on 50% of sites), guidelines on what to do in emergency medical situations quadrupled (now on 30% of sites) and the tables with costs of services provided doubled (now on 19% of sites).
• 23% of hospitals provide telemedicine, chiefly telediagnosis and teleconsulting.

7) Regarding ICT Education and Training

• All state schools in Portugal have had broadband Internet connections since 2006.
• The number of Internet-connected computers in teaching establishments rose 22% over 2005/2006 and 2006/2007.
• In 2006/2007, the number of students per Internet-connected computer in all primary and secondary schools was 11.7 – a 16% drop on the previous year.
• The number of first time higher education students enrolled on ICT courses increased 25% from 2005/2006 to 2006/2007, inverting the decreasing trend seen since 2002/2003 and surpassing the figure for this academic year.

8) Regarding Electronic Communication

• Mobile Telephone Service penetration for the population is 122%.
• Roughly 27% of all Portuguese households subscribe to cable television distribution services.
• In the third quarter of 2007 ,broadband Internet access penetration in the population was around 15% for landlines (64% up on the first quarter of 2005).
• Also in the third quarter of 2007, mobile broadband penetration was 11%, measured on people with mobile broadband Internet access who used the service at least once. Growth from the 1st to the 3rd quarter of 2007 reached 38%, which is very high and is all the more noteworthy when one bears in mind that this figure was only 1.8% in the 2nd quarter of 2006, i.e. a six fold increase in a single year. Given this recent development, when observing broadband Internet access penetration, mobile access has to be included in the equation, as it is reaching a very significant figure compared with landline access.