1 January 2009

Connectivity
Scorecard 2009
Greece – High mobile penetration
rates; but lack of conducive market
conditions and favorable regulations
affects enterprise infrastructure and
usage metrics

Overview

Greece ranks 24th within its peer group of

innovation-driven1 economies included in
Connectivity Scorecard 2009. With a score of
2.62, the country lags far behind South
European countries such as Spain (3.49) and
Italy (3.99), which are themselves very
disappointing performers in a broader context,
and finds itself in company with the former
communist states of Eastern Europe. Of the 25
countries in its peer group, Greece finished
ahead of only Poland, which scores 2.49.

Greece’s performance may come as a surprise

to some, since the country went through an
economic boom in the early years of the
current decade. The Scorecard, however, does echo the findings of the most recent i2010 report by the
European Commission, where Greece ranked between 20th and 26th out of 27 countries on most
measures, and so its performance on the Scorecard reflects systemic issues that require urgent
attention.

Strengths and weaknesses

Greece’s performance on almost every sub-category of the Scorecard is weak.

On the consumer infrastructure front, Greece scores 0.27, which is far below the highest score of 0.88.
The country achieves its best score in the area of tele-density on account of a high mobile penetration
rate, but since the overall consumer infrastructure score combines mobile penetration with ‘latent’2 fixed
line penetration, the country’s historical relative weakness of the fixed-line sector ensures that Greece’s
1
As defined by the World Economic Forum
2
“Latent” tele-density accounts for the conscious choice of consumers to substitute away from fixed lines in many
countries where the infrastructure is available and affordable to many households who nonetheless choose not to
have a fixed line telephone connection because of a preference for mobile telephony
2 January 2009

score on this measure is still only 0.27 on a 0 to

1 scale. In addition to this, broadband
penetration in Greece is far below the EU
average.

At 0.21 Greece’s score in the consumer usage

and skills sub-category is comparable to its
infrastructure score. Greece is among the worst
performers within its peer group specifically in
terms of Internet penetration, and in fact it fares
worse than many eastern European countries in
this regard.

The country’s performance in the business

segment too is weak: It achieves a low 0.25 on
business infrastructure and 0.28 on business
usage and skills. As with some consumer
infrastructure measures, penetration of PCs is also the lowest in the sample of innovation-driven
economies, and so is the penetration of secure servers. This poor showing is repeated in the business
usage and skills sub-category as well, with Greece featuring among the list of worse performers in terms
of Internet buying and selling by enterprises. It is important to note that although Greece’s absolute
scores in this category are comparable to its performance in other segments, the business sub-
categories are awarded the highest weightings – between them they account for more than half of the
total score – and this has a significant negative influence on the country’s overall performance.

The government segment in Greece mirrors the performance of the other two segments. The country
scores low on most e-government measures, with a relative score of 0.45 on the Brookings Institution
ranking. Interestingly, however, the proportion of enterprises using online government services is
relatively high in Greece.

Analysis

As is the case with other southern European nations, an improved telecommunications infrastructure will
be an important but, in isolation, an insufficient step towards solving the country’s ‘connectivity
problems.’ Greece has systemic problems related to usage and deployment of ICT. The more pressing
need, therefore, is to improve its performance on the usage side. Why, for instance, is Internet usage
lower in Greece than it is in poorer nations? Understanding and addressing such anomalies will be
important to improving Greece’s ICT economy.

In addition, Greece’s telecommunications regulatory environment has arguably lagged behind that of the
rest of Europe. The partial privatization of the main incumbent operator, OTE, was only implemented in
2007 with Deutsche Telekom now owning a 20% stake. It is fair to assume, therefore, that further
privatization of the industry could foster significant improvements in market performance.

Besides an improved regulatory and competitive framework, Greece also needs to pay greater attention
to the wider ICT context, thinking long term and investing in the future. The OECD ranks Greece near
the bottom in terms of ‘investment in knowledge,’ and limited systematic data is available on the share
and growth of the ICT sector in the Greek economy. What is quite clear, though, is that the ICT sector is
not a significant component of the Greek economy so far.

As the global economy moves further into the new age, Greece faces the end of an economic boom in
which some of its ‘old economy’ industries such as shipping thrived. It is important that Greece treat the
3 January 2009

findings of the Connectivity Scorecard as a wake-up call and focus on developing ICT as a lever for
sustained growth in living standards.
4 January 2009

APPENDICES

About Connectivity Scorecard

Connectivity Scorecard is a global ICT index, which measures the extent to which governments,
businesses and consumers make use of connectivity technologies to enhance social and economic
prosperity. Unlike other research available, Connectivity Scorecard also measures “usage and skills,”
such as literacy, the use of enterprise software and the accessibility of women to ICT.

Nokia Siemens Networks has commissioned the study, which is the first of its kind to rank countries not
only on their deployment of ICT infrastructure but also on the extent to which people, governments and
businesses put this infrastructure to economically productive use.

The study is created by Leonard Waverman, Fellow of the London Business School and Dean and
Professor at the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary, and conducted under his
direction by international economic consulting firm LECG.

For more information on Nokia Siemens Networks’ Connectivity Scorecard, visit

www.connectivityscorecard.org

Business Contact

Nokia Siemens Networks

Ilkka Lakaniemi, Head of Global Political Dialogue and Initiatives
+358407218009

Media Contacts

Nokia Siemens Networks

Vitaliano Vitale, Communications, South East Europe
+39 335 8215046

Nokia Siemens Networks

Ben Hunt, Media Relations
+44 7508 002382