TEPAV: "Internet Services Expensive in Turkey" Despite high Internet prices at OECD scale, access to the Internet among households has increased by almost 40% over the last three years.

ANKARA - TEPAV states that according to the OECD Broadband Statistics, in the scale where the lowest and highest megabit/second price is $2.39 and $76.11, respectively, Turkey is one of the countries with the highest internet prices.

The note with the title "How does Internet Usage Change in Turkey? An Assessment on Internet Users" by TEPAV Research Associates Ü. Barış Urhan and İrem Kızılca was published.

The note said that 62% of the population in Turkey has never used the Internet as per the data for 2009. When compared to European Union 27 (EU 27) countries, Romania and Turkey have the highest rate of population that has never used the Internet.  On the other hand, over the last four years access to the Internet across households has improved. In 2007 80% of households did not have internet access at home while this rate decreased to 57% by 2010.

Concerning the reasons for not having internet access at home, it is seen that the rate of the households complaining about the high subscription prices have increased by more than 50% between 2007 and 2010. High computer prices were another reason that discourages internet usage.

Turkey has the highest subscription price...

According to the OECD Broadband Statistics, in the scale where the lowest and highest megabit/second price is $2.39 and $76.11, respectively, Turkey is one of the countries with the highest internet prices. A closer examination of the Internet subscription prices reveal that the service offered in Turkey is more expensive than many OECD countries for different Internet speeds. In Turkey, average subscription price for high-speed internet reaches $621 whereas in the closest follower Luxemburg, the price of high-speed Internet subscription is only $112.

The Internet is used mostly for sending and receiving e-mails

The analysis of the purpose of using the Internet gave interesting results compared to the EU-27 countries:

For the 2008-2010 period, the top three reasons for using the Internet were "sending-receiving e-mails, posting messages at chat and social network sites, and reading newspapers and magazines" in Turkey and "sending-receiving e-mails, finding information on goods and services and searching health information" in EU-27.