But...

It was interesting to see a proud minister launch the most advanced network in the world two days ago. In his speech he also congratulated the Dutch on being in the frontline of broadband user worldwide. In fact he indicated that the Netherlands might succeed Korea in the topranking. But minister Brinkhorst of the Dutch ministry of economic affairs looked also at some bleak points in the Netherlands: education and e-government. He based his remarks on the report Digital Economy 2005 published by the Dutch Bureau of Statistics CBS.

The Netherlands might be a leader in broadband, but in the use of ICT in education the Netherlands is not leading anymore. In the hype a schoolnet, Kennisnet, was launched. There was a program for computers in the class room and for the development of interactive courses. In the meantime on average there is 1 computer available for 7 kids and the rise of the population of computers is stagnating. Especially the secondary schools do not have sufficient computers and internet access points. Besides Kennisnet is no longer actively supported.

Also in e-government the Netherlands score very average in offering government services. Especially the number of government services, which will handle an application completely online is not high. In an average Austrian village a citizen has more and better online services than in the Netherlands; besides e-learning in Austria is also better.

So we have the best research network and we are in the top countries with broadband. But in e-learning and e-government the Netherlands is average.

I just picked up some statistics, published by KPMG:

Total of Dutch households: 7.052.000 100%
- PC 5.242.000 (74,3%)
- Internet 4.791.000 (67,9%)
--Smalband 1.221.000 (25,5%)
--Breedband 3.422.000 (71,4%)
- VoIP 154.000 (2,2%)
- Digitale TV 549.000 (7,8%)

Source: Triple play: a different ballgame by KPMG