ICT usage in enterprises, 2000

74 per cent of Norwegian enterprises with 10 or more persons employed had access to the Internet by the end of 2000, against 66 per cent in 1999. However, the increase in enterprises with the Internet last year was significantly below the growth rate in 1999, and growth seems to be moderate in 2001 as well. According to the plans of the enterprises, a further 7 per cent will connect to the Internet during 2001.

Fears of irrelevant surfing and lost working hours are reported the most important barriers to connecting to the Internet by 22 per cent of the enterprises not yet connected. In comparison, however, only 8 per cent of the enterprises with the Internet are reporting irrelevant surfing as an important barrier. Further, 16 per cent of the enterprises without Internet emphasise the risk of viruses and hackers and 19 per cent simply do not envisage sufficient advantages from use of the Internet. On the other hand, "technically too difficult" is reported as an important reason for not being on the net only by 4 per cent of the enterprises.

Access to the Internet varies by the size of enterprises. By the end of 2000 92 per cent of the enterprises with 100 or more persons employed had access. For enterprises with 10-19 persons employed the share was 67 per cent only, but these enterprises did have the strongest increase last year. An additional sample of enterprises with less than 10 persons employed was included in the survey. Not more than 38 per cent of these enterprises reported access to the Internet by the end of 2000 up from 33 per cent in 1999.

The Internet access is most frequent in banking and financial services. In this industry practically every enterprise had access by the end of 2000. Wholesale trade followed with a share of 87 per cent. On the other hand, only 47 per cent of the enterprises within detail trade were connected to the Internet.

In many enterprises only a part of the employees areconnected to the Internet. Only two out of ten enterprises report that all persons employed used a PC with an Internet connection in 2000. In 40 per cent of the enterprises less than one in four persons used a PC with access to the Internet.

Use of the Internet and electronic commerce are also measured in the survey. Results from these areas will be published in separate articles 15 and 22 March.

Tables:

• Table 1 Enterprises with access to the Internet, by size of enterprise. 2000. Share of all enterprises. Per cent
• Table 2 Enterprises with access to the Internet, by industry. Share of all enterprises with 10 or more persons employed. Per cent
• Table 3 Barriers to Internet usage. Share of enterprises without the Internet, reporting barriers of much significance. Per cent