In the EU27, enterprises use the internet for a variety of purposes, among others, to present information on a website, offer online shopping facilities to customers and interact with public authorities. In the EU27, 95% of enterprises had access to the internet in January 2011. The share of enterprises having a fixed broadband connection to access the internet grew slightly from 84% in 2010 to 87% in 2011. On the other hand, the use of mobile broadband connections by enterprises in the EU27 increased significantly in the same period, from 27% to 47%.

In 2010, the majority of enterprises in the EU27 used the internet to interact with public authorities (e-government), with 74% of enterprises obtaining information from public authorities' websites and 69% submitting completed forms electronically.

These data come from a report published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, and form part of the results of a survey conducted at the beginning of 2011 on ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) usage and e-commerce in enterprises in the EU27 Member States, Norway and Croatia, with a special focus on internet use to interact with public authorities.

Largest shares of enterprises with mobile broadband connection to the internet in Finland, Sweden and Austria

The level of internet access and fixed broadband internet connections among enterprises in January 2011 was high in nearly all EU27 Member States. The share of enterprises having mobile broadband connections to the internet grew in all Member States from 2010 to 2011, with the largest increases registered in Estonia (from 9% in 2010 to 48% in 2011), Germany (from 22% to 57%), Greece (from 6% to 38%) and France (from 28% to 60%). The highest shares of enterprises with mobile broadband access in 2011 were found in Finland (77%), Sweden (67%) and Austria (65%), and the lowest in Romania (15%), Latvia (23%) and Poland (24%).

Obtaining information from public authorities' websites common among EU enterprises

More than 90% of all enterprises in Slovakia (94%), Lithuania and Finland (both 92%) and Sweden (91%) reported that they used the internet to obtain information from public authorities' websites in 2010, while it was less than half of enterprises in Romania (47%) and the Netherlands (48%). On the other hand, 97% of enterprises in the Netherlands reported that they used the internet in 2010 to submit completed forms electronically to public authorities, followed by 93% in Lithuania and 87% in Greece, Poland and Finland. In Italy and Romania (both 39%) and Cyprus (40%) it was less common for enterprises to use the internet for the purpose of submitting completed forms electronically.

Less than 20% of EU enterprises have a website offering online ordering

In January 2011, 69% of enterprises in the EU27 had a website, compared with 62% in 2006. While 17% of enterprises had a website with an online ordering, booking or reservation facility, which is a quarter of all enterprises with a website, the majority of enterprises in the EU27 had in principle a website for information purposes.

The share of enterprises having a website differs considerably between the Member States. In January 2011, the highest shares of enterprises with a website were registered in the Nordic Member States Finland (93% of all enterprises), Denmark and Sweden (both 89%), and the lowest shares in Romania (34%) and Bulgaria (45%). In all Member States, the use of the website is mainly to inform and not to offer online ordering. The percentage of enterprises with a website offering an online ordering, booking or reservation facility ranged between 9% in Cyprus and Portugal and 33% in the Czech Republic.