Internet in the Czech Republic

=Wireless=

Wi-Fi

Because ADSL was very expensive for the average worker in its early days, an enormous number of wireless ISPs (WISPs) (based on 802.11 Wi-Fi technology) came to an existence offering reasonable priced monthly-plans since 2003. By the beginning of 2008 there was over 800 mostly local WISPs [citeweb|title=Wi-Fi: Poskytovatelé bezdrátového připojení|url=http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.internetprovsechny.cz%2Fwifi-poskytovatele.php&hl=cs&ie=UTF8&sl=cs&tl=en|publisher=internetprovsechny.cz|accessdate=2008-03-17] [citeweb|title=Bezdrátové připojení k internetu|url=http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bezdratovepripojeni.cz&hl=cs&ie=UTF8&sl=cs&tl=en|publisher=bezdratovepripojeni.cz|accessdate=2008-05-18] that had enormous market share of the internet access. It is estimated Wi-Fi ISPs have about 350 000 subscribers by 2007. The Czech Republic has the most Wi-Fi subscriber in the whole European Union. [ [http://www.ey.com/global/content.nsf/Czech_Republic_E/2007_WiFi_survey_EN 2007 WiFi survey EN ] ] [ [http://www.volweb.cz/horvitz/os-info/czech.html openspectrum.info - Czech Republic ] ] There are both commercial and community wireless networks.

Mobile

Mobile internet is quite popular. Plans based on either GPRS, EDGE, UMTS or CDMA2000 are being offered by all three mobile phone operators (T-Mobile, Vodafone, Telefonica O2) and by a data-only wireless operator U:fon. The average cost for an unlimited mobile internet plan ranges around 25 Euro/month. Various traffic shaping (monthly data limits after which the speed dramatically decreases) are used under common name "Fair Use Policy".

Wired

ADSL

In the Czech Republic, ADSL became commercially available at the beginning of 2003 by then-monopoly operator Český Telecom with basic speeds from 192/64 kbit/s to 1024/256 kbit/s. The start-up of ADSL was very slow due to overpriced plans (~€350 per month for 1024/256 kbit). At the beginning of 2004, local loop unbundling began, and alternative operators started to offer ADSL (and also SDSL). This, and later privatisation of Cesky Telecom helped drive down prices. On July 1, 2006, Český Telecom was renamed to Telefónica O2 Czech Republic. As of January 2006, ADSL2+ is offered in many variants, both with data limit and without with speeds up to 10 Mbit/s.

The typical ADSL connection in Czech Republic is 2048/256 kbit/s with data limits of several GB. Speeds, data limits, Fair User Policy (limiting link speed based on amount of transferred data) and overbooking vary per each ISP.

Cable

Cable internet is gaining popularity with its higher download speeds beginning at 2 Mbit/s up to 20 Mbit/s. The biggest ISP, UPC (which has bought another CATV internet provider Karneval in 2007) is providing its service in big cities (Prague, Brno, Ostrava)

UPC chello
* 3072/256 kbit/s, no limit, 1:40 - ~€20
* 8192/1024 kbit/s, no limit, 1:40 - ~€44
* 16384/1024 kbit/s, no limit, 1:40 - ~€162

References