From the dial-up modem to the age of fiber optics, internet connections have come a long way. Gone are the days when you’d get disconnected because someone was trying to dial out a phone call or send out a fax.

These days, few of us actually stop to appreciate the quality of the services that we take for granted.

According to the statistics released by Eurostat for the European countries in 2013, 79% of households in the EU space have access to internet and 76% of households have a broadband connection. Further studies regarding the internet connection speed and quality position Romania among the countries with the best internet services.

Connection speed

According to the same netindex.com charts, Romania ranks 3rd worldwide regarding the download speed (57.4 Mbps), behind Hong Kong and Singapore, and 7th concerning the upload speed (with an average of 29.3 Mbps). Note: keep in mind that these statistics were compiled using data from household connections. Business services are of an even higher quality.

IPv6 protocol

A few years back, Romanian internet service providers have anticipated that internet usage in general (and the number of Romanian internet users in particular) would skyrocket in the following years, and so they built a system that easily adapts to the newest technologies in order to meet the demand for both quantity and quality. Currently, Romania has a high adoption rate of IPv6 protocol.

Benefits to the Romanian IT industry

Thanks to the access to the latest IT technologies on the market and the skilled personnel, over the years, big names from the IT industry (such as Microsoft and Google) have established branch offices in Romania.

Also, the software outsourcing businesses have encountered the right conditions to prosper in Romania. Since the outsourcing industry provides tailor made solutions, this sector of the market attracts skilled programmers, offering them the tools to build quality software applications based on the latest technologies.

Working for an outsourcing company means that you expect of yourself to quickly find and use the best solution for any given task, in order to maximize efficiency. That means that the job involves extensive research before the actual development. This brings us back to the need to access the world’s largest public source of information: the Internet.

Aside from research, having a quality internet connection means that stability and performance will never be a problem during an online meeting with a client, communication breakdowns are virtually non-existent thanks to Email services, VOIP services, screen sharing (and many other available solutions).

This also facilitates customer support at any given time during the business hours. Leaving communication aside, thanks to the online market system (that has grown a lot over the past years), any development tool necessary to get a job done is only a few clicks and a few seconds (worst case – minutes) away.

These are the benefits that quality internet access brought to Romania (and to its outsourcing businesses). So what’s the quality of the internet connection in your country, and how did it impact your business?