TEL AVIV - Israel had the highest percentage of Internet surfers in 2004 compared to Europe and the U.S, according to a survey by financial analyst Business Data Israel Ltd.
More than 50 percent of Israel's 940,000 households have high-speed connections, compared to just 10% in Europe and 22% in the U.S, according to BDI, which provides business information on some 300,000 Israeli companies, as well as market surveys and sector analyses.
According to BDI, 84% of Internet users in 2004 were secular, 14% were traditional-religious and 2% haredi.
Lacking in Internet speed
However, while Israel may have the highest per capita number of surfers using a high-speed connection, the rate of high-speed connections in Israel is ranked among the lowest internationally, BDI says.
One reason for this is because ADSL Internet service, which is widely available in Israel, is significantly slower than the DSL technology (such as HDSL, SDSL AND VDSL) used in other parts of the world.
More than 75% of those connected to the web in Israel have only a 750 kilobyte per second connection.
Internet service providers have recently offered discounted prices on I.5 or 2 Megabytes per second connections in an attempt to increase the sale of Internet surfing speed.
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