Firms Demand Immediate Data Transfer via the Internet

Immediate data transfer is the attribute of the Internet that should be improved first, according to 46 per cent of the participants of a survey conducted by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW). Some 500 firms from the manufacturing industry and ICT service providers in Germany were surveyed for an empirical study on behalf of Deutsche Telekom AG.

Immediate transfer refers to steady Internet connections as well as to quick traffic flow, a minimal degree of packet loss, or continuous availability of bandwidth during peak times. Other attributes are considered far less important according to the ZEW survey. For only 19 per cent of the surveyed companies is the improvement of download bandwidth a top priority, and merely 18 per cent demand extended upload bandwidth as the most important improvement. However, no less than 17 per cent of the respondents feel no need for quality improvement of the Internet (for illustrations see download option at the bottom of the press release).

ZEW asked the companies who wish for quality improvements concerning Internet access about their willingness to pay for better quality. Throughout the different quality criteria, it could be shown that the majority of companies are willing to pay Internet charges 10 per cent higher for the improvements demanded. Even though the majority of companies wish for improvements in instantaneous data transfer, they are more willing to spend money on higher download or upload bandwidth (83 per cent and 76 per cent).

When asked about the features which have the greatest importance for them as providers of products and services via the Internet, instantaneous data transfer was the most frequent reply. 87 per cent consider this feature very important and a further eleven per cent quite important. By comparison, the feature "down- and upload bandwidth" lags far behind with a relatively higher proportion of companies which consider this criterion merely "important", not "very important".

ZEW also surveyed the companies about their attitude towards data prioritisation and prioritised data transfer via the Internet according to different criteria. In total, nearly 43 per cent of the surveyed companies are in favour of charged traffic prioritising. Regarding different types of prioritisation, i.e. prioritisation by destination, by service, or by time of the day, companies consider prioritisation by destination most important. About 31 per cent of the surveyed companies claim that this type of prioritisation would be helpful to them. Prioritisation of certain services comes second (22 per cent), followed by the prioritisation of data traffic at certain times of the day (18 per cent).

Innovative companies are considerably more interested in charged prioritisation than non-innovative companies. In the study, a company is referred to as innovative if it introduced new products, new services or new business models in 2012 which would not have been introduced without the Internet. About 27 per cent of non-innovative companies show interest in charged prioritisation by destination, while the share of interested innovative companies is almost 37 per cent, a difference of about ten percentage points. Regarding prioritisation of data traffic at certain times of day, the difference is also ten percentage points. Reaching 16 percentage points, the difference is becoming even more visible when it comes to the prioritisation of certain services. 

For more information please contact

Dr. Jörg Ohnemus, Phone +49 621/1235-354, E-mail ohnemus@zew.de