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by:
Overmars Organisatie Adviseurs
Churchilllaan 11
3527 GV Utrecht
Tel.: +31 30 2965335
Fax: +31 30 2965570
Email: info@overmars.nl
www.overmars.nl
drs M.M. Willigenburg,
F. van Osch RA
Gesellschaft für Kommunikations- und Technologieforschung mbH, Oxfordstr. 2, D-53111 Bonn
Tel.: (+49 02 2) 9 85 30-0, Fax: (+49 02 28) 9 85 30-12, Email: info@empirica.com, http://www.empirica.com, http://www.ecatt.com, Contact: Werner B. Korte
Table of Contents: 
1. Introduction
2. The Policy Background in the Netherlands
2.1 Telecommunication liberalisation, pricing, availability, etc.
2.1.1 Liberalisation in fixed networks
2.1.2 Liberalisation in mobile networks
2.1.3 Internet access and pricing
2.1.4 Summary
2.2 Specific telework and e-commerce policies
2.2.1 Telework and new ways of work
2.2.2 E-Commerce
2.2.3 Information society initiatives
3. Electronic Commerce and Telework Penetration and Trends: The Main ECATT Findings for the Netherlands
3.1 Background
3.1 Electronic Commerce
3.1.1 PC and E-mail usage, Internet and online services access and use by the
population
3.1.2 Online activities relating to electronic commerce: online shopping and
banking by the population
3.1.3 Barriers to online shopping
3.1.4 Advantages of online shopping
3.1.5 E-mail use, Internet and online services access and use by
establishments
3.1.6 E-mail and Internet 'censorship' in Dutch establishments
3.1.7 Online and electronic commerce activities by establishments
3.1.8 Barriers to online sales and online procurement
3.1.9 Summary
3.2 Telework
3.2.1 Telework penetration and growth
3.2.2 Interest in and potential of telework
3.2.3 Characteristics of telework and teleworkers
3.2.4 Telework practise by establishments
3.2.5 Barriers to Telework
3.2.6 Telework potential, trends, prognosis
3.2.7 Summary
4. Conclusions
4.1 Telework
4.2 Electronic Commerce
5. Recommendations
5.1 Raising awareness
5.2 Government policies in relation to European policies
5.3 Globalisation
5.4 Telecommunications policy and pricing
6. Annex
6.1 Projects and Initiatives in THE NETHERLANDS on TELEWORK and NEW WAYS OF
WORKING 51
6.2 Projects and Initiatives in THE NETHERLANDS on ELECTRONIC COMMERCE 53
This report describes the state of affairs in the Netherlands with regard to teleworking, new ways of working and electronic-commerce. It was brought about through desk research, interviews and on the basis of figures provided by Empirica. Together with the country reports of the other members of the consortium it comprises part of the ECATT study and also provides a picture of the Netherlands' position compared to other European countries. This created the framework from which the research results can be drawn.
Thanks to ICT applications, globalisation is increasing and it is becoming increasingly important to consider developments from a global perspective. The position of the Netherlands in relation to Europe takes on a new meaning when seen in context with countries such as the United States and Japan. The initial impetus to this comparison is made using case studies from the US and Japan as references in another part of the ECATT study. Unfortunately, the benchmark study on which the country report in question is based could not be carried out in a similar way in the US and Japan, so a direct comparison is not possible. In order to gain deeper insight into Europe's position compared to America and Asia, a follow-up study is recommended.
Over the past two years, due to strong liberalisation efforts, the telecommunications landscape in the Netherlands has developed to become rapidly growing and increasingly competitive. Conservative forecasts indicate growth in Internet use from 1998 to 2002 by 100% a year and an average growth in mobile telephony of 60% a year. The Netherlands now belongs to the top group in the world with respect to the quality, penetration and use of telecommunications infrastructure. It is moving in the same direction with respect to telecommunication prices, which is mainly due to the heavy competition in this market as a result of the market liberalisation and subsequent emergence of many competitors for KPN Telecom. Finally, free Internet access is starting to become more widely available in the Netherlands. Today, the Netherlands offers very good infrastructural prerequisites and preconditions for electronic commerce and new forms of work such as telework. The government recognises the increasing pressure on the (wide-band) capacity of the telecommunications infrastructure as a result of new user applications, and is monitoring it as a potential bottleneck. Although the prognoses in this area are changed and adjusted frequently, new government policy is not required. In principle, the extensive liberalisation of the telecommunications market is already sufficient. Only if pressure on the capacity persists in the long term, would the government need to take additional incentive measures in order to accelerate the development of technical innovations generated by the jumps in capacity.
Over the last few years, the Dutch government has invested heavily in raising awareness and funding programmes to improve the diffusion and penetration of electronic commerce and telework as well as initiatives to pave the Netherlands' way towards the information society. The aim is to continue with these activities which are focused on industry, public administration and the general population in the years to come. In addition, the government (in some cases in co-operation with the private sector) has announced a number of specific programmes to achieve the different set objectives.
So far, in the Netherlands the importance of the information society has been recognised, and coherent lines of action have been established at the government level which contribute to the objective of maintaining the strong position which the Netherlands has in the world in this area, and to strengthen the weaker components. With an unchanged policy and consistent implementation of the ensuing lines of action, the Netherlands should be able to realise its ambitions. It is hoped that in the not too distant future, the Netherlands will be able to obtain the benefits from all these investments and activities and develop into one of the world's leading information societies, preferably at a higher rate than it has thus far.
In order to achieve this objective some recommendations for further procedures, such as those in the area of raising awareness and European co-operation, are presented in section 5. This section also addresses the possibilities of cross-fertilisation through the application of knowledge from the (parallel) history of teleworking and the introduction of e-commerce.
