Bosnia-Herzegovina

[BA] RAK Report on the Internet in Bosnia and Herzegovina

IRIS 2010-7:1/6

Dusan Babic

Media Analyst, Sarajevo

The Communications Regulatory Agency (RAK/CRA) recently published its 2009 report on the Internet in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

There are currently 77 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) legally registered in the country. However, seven ISPs were not included in this survey; RAK did not give specific reasons for this.

In total, there are 399,329 Internet subscribers and close to 1.5 million Internet users, which is an increase of 63,166 Internet subscribers and approximately 200,000 Internet users compared with the previous year (see IRIS 2009-5: 7/10). 37% of the country’s total population (estimated at 4.5 million) use the Internet. This number is derived following the International Telecommunications Union's (ITU) definition according to which an Internet user is any person aged from 16 to 74 using the Internet during the year.

Regarding access to the Internet the xDSL modus operandi prevails, making up 43% of the total number of Internet users, followed by the dial-up model (via analogue modem and ISDN) representing 26.8%. The remaining percentage is spread among wireless, cable, FTTx leased lines and others.

The xDSL Internet access increased by 39.3% in 2009. The number of broadband accesses in the same year increased by 35.5%. Currently, broadband access makes up 73.1% of the total number of Internet subscribers in the country.

Regarding support services ISPs offer spam protection (80% of them) and antivirus protection (59% of them).

The RAK expects that further liberalisation of the telecommunications markets and the introduction of new technologies, digitisation in particular, will offer better services, implying a further expansion of the Internet.