{"id":84657,"date":"2011-04-12T12:54:25","date_gmt":"2011-04-12T07:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/?p=84657"},"modified":"2011-04-12T13:23:45","modified_gmt":"2011-04-12T08:23:45","slug":"internet-penetration-in-armenia-tripled-in-past-2-years-caucasus-barometer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2011\/04\/12\/internet-penetration-in-armenia-tripled-in-past-2-years-caucasus-barometer.html","title":{"rendered":"Internet Penetration in Armenia Tripled in Past 2 Years: Caucasus Barometer"},"content":{"rendered":"

After years of single-digit Internet penetration, in 2010, Internet penetration in Armenia tripled<\/em> from nearly 6% in 2009 to 19% in 2010, according to Armenian technology expert Katy Pearce, based on the Caucasus Barometer, a nationally representative survey conducted every fall in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

Mobile Internet is most likely the reason for this, says Pearce. According to the Caucasus Barometer, 22% of Armenians have Internet access via their mobile phones, most of them beginning to use this service in 2009 or 2010. Three common ways that Armenians use mobile Internet are:\u00a0(1) Accessing the Internet through a phone such as a smartphone,\u00a0(2) Tethering, a method to share the Internet connection on a mobile phone with a personal computer through a USB cable or a Bluetooth connection and (3) USB sticks that are plugged into a PC\u2019s USB port and pick up a cellular signal.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

Home Internet Adoption in Armenia<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n2004<\/td>\n2005<\/td>\n2006<\/td>\n2007<\/td>\n2008<\/td>\n2009<\/td>\n2010<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ITU<\/td>\n2.00%<\/td>\n2.90%<\/td>\n4.21%<\/td>\n4.41%<\/td>\n5.86%<\/td>\n5.86%<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CB<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n4.30%<\/td>\n7.00%<\/td>\n5.80%<\/td>\n19.30%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

(ITU is the UN International Telecommunications Union, CB is Caucasus Barometer.)<\/p>\n

Contrary to expectations that early adopters of technology are young, rich, educated urbanites, Armenians adopting mobile Internet are regionally diverse: 37% of adopters are Yerevan residents, 29% are regional city dwellers, and 35% are rural villagers. They’re equally men and women. They’re young, but they are not teenagers. The average age of a mobile Internet adopter is 41. They’re better off economically than the average Armenian, but not extremely wealthy, according to Pearce’s analysis of the Caucasus Barometer.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Armenians owning personal computers nearly doubled from 15% in 2009 to 27% in 2010.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

Home PC Adoption in Armenia<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n2006<\/td>\n2007<\/td>\n2008<\/td>\n2009<\/td>\n2010<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ITU<\/td>\n6.77%<\/td>\n8.32%<\/td>\n10.23%<\/td>\n10.23%<\/td>\nn\/a<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CB<\/td>\n10.80%<\/td>\n11.40%<\/td>\n14.70%<\/td>\n14.70%<\/td>\n26.70%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Why did this happen in 2010 after years of slow growth? Possibly due to the Computers for All program<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, which lowered the cost of computers for some Armenians. This government pilot program, launched in Sept. 2009, allows individuals to rent computers at a subsidized low cost. According to Armenpress, in early 2011, over 17,000 computers were rented through the program. Citizens of Armenia approved for the program can rent laptops for 11,400-18,300 drams (about $31\u2013$50 US) per month and desktop PCs for 11,200 drams (about $30 US) per month.<\/p>\n

Though the program met its goal of providing 30% of Armenian residents with PCs and expanding computers to Yerevan residents (48% of Yerevan residents had PCs in 2010 as compared to 33% in 2009), it cannot be said that the program was the only reason for the increased adoption of personal computers. The program also met its goal of expanding computers to rural Armenians: in 2010, 12.5% of rural Armenians had PCs, as compared to only 5% in 2009; however, again, it is not certain whether the increase was a result of the program.<\/p>\n

One area, though, where the program clearly failed was in its goal of increasing computer literacy: According to the Caucasus Barometer, self-reported computer skill has not increased from 2007 to 2010, with nearly two-thirds of Armenians reporting no<\/em> skill with computers.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, 24.2% of PC owners bought their latest computer in 2010 as compared to 24.8% in 2009, according to the Caucasus Barometer, both possibly within the government subsidy program. Thus, although this program obviously does provide some <\/em>computers to some<\/em> individuals, it is still prohibitively expensive for most Armenians.\u00a0 Despite the government subsidy program, personal computers are still only available to the wealthier in Armenian society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After years of single-digit Internet penetration, in 2010, Internet penetration in Armenia tripled from nearly 6% in 2009 to 19% in 2010.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":84660,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[65942,24689,24694,24693,24687,24690,24688,24692,24691,10355],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84657"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}