The presentation was attended by the minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Miguel Sebastián, who presided over the event, César Alierta, the president of Telefónica and Javier Nadal, the vice-president of the Fundación Telefónica. It was also attended by Julio Linares, managing director of Telefónica S.A., and Bernardo Lorenzo, secretary of State for Telecommunications and the Information Society, along with Carlos Domingo, CEO of TI+D, and Fernando Fournon, president of this company.
In its eleventh edition, the study is initiating a new stage, with changes in its format and with new indices and analysis. In addition, it has been reduced in size, summarising the main indicators and data. It includes information about “The future of electronic publications” and “Augmented Reality: a new lens for seeing the world”, with an analysis and description of the situation of each one of the topics.
Conclusions
For the first time in Spain, investment in innovation of the companies of the ICT sector has increased by 5% and by 3% in R+D. This innovation has fundamentally taken the form of products and services, which assist the rest of society to make the most of the possibilities which the new technologies provide.
One of the elements that define the evolution and consolidation of the Information Society in our country is that the most mature segments of the population have taken the lead in the growth of digitalisation and the carrying out of activities using Internet. During the last two years, the level of digitalisation of contents and the carrying out of activities in a digital manner (use of Internet for bank operations, etc.) has mostly grown amongst people between 45 and 64 years old, which is amongst the mean of the population.
Thus, the process of the digitalisation of society is entering a stage of greater maturity, in which its citizens are increasingly more aware of the utility of the use of these services in its everyday activities, and so the age gap is tending to be reduced.
The increase in the use by the more mature members of the population and the high level of participation of young people has reached the figure of 27 million users by the net browsing community in our country. Out of this total, 69.2% access the net daily, 13.3% more than in the previous year. This means that almost 15 and a half million people make intensive and daily use of the Internet.
As regards the evolution of the technologies of access, broadband demand has continued growing in Spain. The figure of 10 million landline broadband lines was exceeded in 2010, with a growth rate of 8.3% in the last year. Of these ten million accesses, 80% are supported by ADSL technology, followed by those using cable (19%).
Landline broadband is now reaching over 50% of homes. The contracting of the triple offer (Internet, TV and telephone) has grown by 250% in the last five years.
In Spain, there are nine million homes with Internet access, which represents an increase of over 700,000 homes as compared to the previous year. Of these, over eight million eight hundred thousand homes have a broadband connection, which represents a growth of over 900,000 accesses as compared to 2009.
Mobile broadband continues being one of the engines of growth of the Information Society. At present, 20.3% of Internet users in Spain have accessed via broadband mobile telephones (5 percentage points higher than in 2009).
In our country, there are now over 2 million mobile lines associated with machines. The growth in M2M lines (machine to machine communication) is 18.9% as compared to 2.3% for conventional lines. The “Internet of things” is beginning. The universe of devices and elements that are connected to the net is growing. At present, 15% of the growth in mobile lines is because of this concept.
Cloud has strengthened in 2010. At present, 10.2% of the cost in external IT services of the companies at the level is now dedicated to cloud computing. The reasons for companies using it are flexibility and cost saving.
The Open Data movement has also started this year, mainly led by Public Authorities. It places data of common interest at the disposal of society, so that others can build a new idea on them which results in new data, knowledge or services.
In 2010, Spain has attained a privileged situation in relation to the development of e-Administration. It holds ninth place in the world in this regard and third place in e-participation.
Internet now reaches all of the key sectors: 82.9% of children between 10 and 15 years of age use Internet for some kind of instruction. 98% of health centres and 70% of hospitals have an Electronic Clinical Record. And 40.8% of net browsers pay taxes using Internet (a rise of 10 percentage points as compared to 2009).
Another change which is now a reality this year is the predominance of video over the rest of Internet traffic, both for landlines and for mobile telephones. Current networks have to be endowed with new capacities and it is necessary to make progress in the construction of new generation networks, as well as defining a new model for the Internet of the Future, in fields that are not only related to infrastructures, but also to business models, the use of the net in multiple sectors and fields, intellectual property, privacy, etc.
The evolution seen in the use of the net has produced tension amongst the agents and the models they are currently working with. We find ourselves at the start of a new Internet phase in which it will be necessary not just to redefine the relationship between the agents in the sector, but also that between the users themselves and the agents, in such a way that it is ensured that the model is sustainable for everyone.
As the enabler for these transformations, broadband continues growing and it is becoming increasingly ubiquitous. Devices are increasingly smarter, more portable and better connected to the net. A new category of devices have appeared that are geared towards multimedia entertainment and tablets, and the price of a device which has already spent several years on the market, such as the e-reader, has fallen from € 150. This represents a reduction of one of the main barriers for using it: the price.
The range of the reading, that is to say, that of books, magazines and periodicals, is one of the fields which is yet to be digitalised, a route that has already been travelled by the world of music, photography or video. This movement is bringing about a revolution in the world of publications and the whole of the eco-system that surrounds them and there is no doubt that digitalisation will make progress.
The photo of the 2010 Information Society shows an expanding reality where, moreover, the most mature segments of the population are being infected by the advantages of using technologies.