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1998 Central European ISP Survey
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1998 Central European Internet Service Provider Survey

Paola Kathuria & Frank Wales

1998

In 1998, we were approached by an international telecommunications company, and were commissioned to report on the Internet access market in Central Europe. They were considering acquiring an Internet Service Provider (ISP) which matched a specific profile.

We designed and ran an online survey which was completed by invited companies in Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. Over half the companies invited completed the survey and the respondents were mainly the company owners, directors or senior managers.

As an incentive to provide information, our client agreed that a summary report could be made available not less than six months after the survey. These are the graphs and tables that compare the results from the three countries, without identifying any individual company.

A case study is available about this project.

Contents

Core business

Services

Products

Background

Size

Disaster recovery provisions

Main customer type

New business sources

Quality of service

Guaranteed services

Company type

Please note: CZ=Czech Republic, HU=Hungary and PL=Poland. The numbers in brackets after the country codes in the tables and graphs refer to the number of companies who responded to the question.

Core business

Q. What is your company's core business?

[Core business by country] [Core business]
Q. What is your company's core business?CZ (12)HU (21)PL (9)Total
Internet access1117432
Telecoms0112
Web design0123
Other1225

Services

Q. What services does your company offer?

[Services for all companies] [CZ Services] [HU Services] [PL Services]
Q. What services does your company offer?CZ (12)HU (21)PL (12)Total
Web Space Rental11201243
Web Design12161240
Dial-up Access1218939
Web Server915933
Leased Line Access11111032
E-mail Server815932
Web Site Maintenance7121231
Technical Services8111130
FTP Server713929
Technical Consultancy614828
Intranet Design691025
Web Site Promotion69722
E-mail Forwarding58821
Software Development411419
Training47718
Graphic Design47516
ISDN Access29415
Marketing or Strategic Consultancy27211
High- or Guaranteed-availability Internet Access34310
News Server2518
Copy-writing0325
Research1113

Products

Q. What products does your company offer?

[Products for all companies] [CZ Products] [HU Products] [PL Products]
Q. What products does your company offer?CZ (12)HU (21)PL (12)Total
Internet-related Hardware89825
Other Hardware36716
Internet-related Systems26816
Other Software33511
Internet-related Software32510
Other Products2316
Computer Supplies0224
Books1001

Background

Q. When did your company start?

[Years in business by country]

Q. When did you start providing Internet access?

[Years providing Internet access by country]
BackgroundNo. Years in BusinessNo. Years Providing Internet Services
Most commonAverageMost commonAverage
CZ (12)2422
HU (21)2322
PL (12)2522

Size

Q. How many people work for your company?

[Number of staff by country] [Number of staff]
Q. How many people work for your company?Most commonAverageLowestHighest
CZ (12)814435
HU (17)10311330
PL (12)-424278

Disaster recovery provisions

Q. Which of the following disaster recovery provisions do you have for your communications?

Table shows the percentage of companies which had the provision.

[Disaster recovery provisions by country] [Disaster recovery provisions]
Q. Which of the following disaster recovery provisions
do you have for your communications?
CZ (11)HU (19)PL (11)Average
Back-ups82%89%73%81%
Duplicate equipment27%47%64%46%
Regularly-tests recovery procedures36%26%36%33%
Hot-standby equipment9%37%18%21%
Agreements for other ISPs to carry backbone traffic during major failures18%16%27%20%
Redundant equipment18%21%18%19%
Business Continuity Insurance9%16%27%17%
Multiple operations centres9%21%18%16%
Off-site back-ups0%0%0%0%

Main customer type

Q. What is your main type of customer?

[Customer type by country] [Customer type]
Q. What is your main type of customer?CZ (12)HU (19)PL (12)Total
Small- and medium-sized businesses910827
Large businesses3339
Individuals55
International corporations11
Government departments11

New business sources

Q. How do you get new business?

Table shows the percentage that a method is used to get new business.

[New business sources by company] [New business sources]
Q. How do you get new business?CZ (12)HU (18)PL (10)Total
Advertising23%22%20%65%
Direct marketing27%10%27.5%64%
Resellers17%15%8.5%41%
Other0%2%0%2%

Quality of service

Q. What commitment (guarantee) do you make to your customers about the quality of your service?

[Service quality commitment by country] [Service quality commitment]
Q. What commitment (guarantee) do you make to your customers
about the quality of your service?
CZ (12)HU (20)PL (11)Total
A general statement about quality69419
A Service Level Agreement with financial penalties for failure to meet measurable service levels34411
A specific statement with measurable service levels1326
A Service Level Agreement guaranteeing measurable service levels415

Guaranteed services

Q. Which of the following services do you guarantee?

[Guaranteed services by country] [Guaranteed services]
Q. Which of the following services do you guarantee?CZ (12)HU (20)PL (12)Average
Availability of technical support67%80%50%66%
Technical support response time33%60%83%59%
Bandwidth33%35%33%34%

Company type

Q. What kind of company are you?

[Company type by country] [Company type]
Q. What kind of company are you?CZ (12)HU (21)PL (12)Total
Private-held company818935
Partnership4127

A case study is available about this project.