Moscow, July 13 (Alexander Yurov, RIA Novosti political commentator) Russia has finally gone online. In Moscow alone, 42% have access to the web. Then again, Moscow is the most computerized Russian city, and the national average is much lower: 14% of Russians use the Internet regularly.
In relative terms, Russia still lags far behind many other countries. In Sweden, for example, 74% of adults are connected to the Internet, in the Netherlands - 73%, in the U.S. - 59%, and in Poland and Turkey - 24% and 17%, respectively. Still, even the modest 14% in Russia translates into 20 million Internet users.
The Internet brings new culture and leisure into people's homes. With the advent of new information transfer technologies, Russians are no longer limited to e-mail and ICQ. Today, they can download films, music, games and much more without leaving home or office; they join interest groups, create their own sites, and publish online diaries.
In Russia, the Internet did not become popular overnight. 1990 saw the birth of the Russian domain, but the few Internet users back then saw nothing but a bleak screen with endless rows of numbers and symbols running across. Only pros could do anything with that. The progress made in the past 16 years is staggering. New user-friendly software and technologies have made the Internet easy to use. But it was only after ADSL replaced the usual dial-up modems, that the Russian domain experienced a real revolution, resulting in a sharp rise of regular users. ADSL technology uses telephone lines, and the speed is ten times higher. It is also very easy to get connected: all you need is a special adapter, still called a modem by association. Higher speed has brought the fees down: it now takes only a minute to download a 1 MB file, as opposed to a whole night as before. The monthly payments are fixed and do not depend on the volume of traffic. An added benefit is that the phone line stays open.
Russia has also got access to online television. This is fairly new: in Moscow and St. Petersburg over 50% use it, but the national average for advanced technologies is slightly over 20%. Most people in the regions still have dial up connections, which now has another disadvantage: it does not access flash animation, used by many web designers today. Most regional Internet providers now offer the most up-to-date technologies to their clients.
You can also get a satellite connection, an even better option. But whatever the technology, the main problem for people living in the regions is the high rates. The average cost there is two thousand rubles ($74) per month, whereas in Moscow it is only $20.
Nevertheless, annual IT growth in Russia is 15-20%, and analysts predict that by the end of 2006 there will be 2.5 million more computers. And for a Russian user, a computer without Internet access is pointless.
