Internet in Greece

Another study regarding the growth of internet in Greece was recently published. The results are once again depressing, only a 32,4% uses internet with a main reason being email correspondence, another 19.6% is willing to use internet but hasn’t  yet, a 30,8% is considering the risks and choose not to use it and finally 17,2% don’t want to use internet at all.
The most important reasons – issues, that were mentioned in the study, and prevent users from using Internet are :
Security and lack of confidence:
This issue is mainly addressed to us developers, we need to make better and more reliable software! We need to follow patterns and practices that have proven secure and reliable and stop the “Do it Myself” syndrome! The IT industry has to contribute too, many companies (Microsoft as an example) have already realized the effect this issue has on their sales (market) and have begun investing major funds on Security (it hasn’t been long since Microsoft invited hackers to hack into their systems in an effort to find their security vulnerabilities) . More have to follow.
Cost:
It’s a fact that Greece has the most expensive and at the same time slowest internet access in Europe, well this have to change if  we want these figures to change. O.T.E. (the government’s telecommunication organization) has to stop its monopolistic tactics and let other private sector companies compete over the telecommunications market thus resulting in lower prizes and faster connections. It would be nice to be able to reduce internet cost by half by just making a call to change provider.
Content
Last but not least internet services and content have to increase. In other countries most of the government services (if not all) are also offered through the internet, here in Greece a new internet service has been recently created where you can get a digital certificate that you’ve paid your taxes (needed in many financial transactions)  but no one accepts this certificate as a legal document. Things have to change, the government should take this new medium seriously and not only be the first to  implement and offer  public services through the internet but support the private sector to do the same. Private companies should also invest in internet, a nice example of an effort to enrich Greek Internet with new and innovating ideas is the 50000€ competition sponsored by Otenet.
It would be nice to see the Internet Users figure go over 50% but we all have to try …