While many people might think of Europe as a technologically sophisticated place, several European countries are lagging behind the others when it comes to Internet access on phones, and Internet users across the EU were concerned about the cost.

"Ensuring consumers' expectations can be met at an affordable price is one of the aims of the Connected Continent package, which will be presented by the Commission in September," Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission for the Digital Agenda, said.

According to a survey taken by the European Commission of nations across the European Union, less than 35 percent of mobile phone subscriptions in the countries of Belgium, Greece, Hungary, Cyprus, Romania, Bulgaria and Portugal have Internet access, compared with 55 percent in Sweden, Denmark, the U.K., Finland, France and the Netherlands.

People in the countries with lower mobile usage cited concerns about cost for limiting their mobile usage. The rates tend to be higher for data usage in these countries, which encourages users to shy away from mobile Internet. More than half of EU citizens limit their mobile-to-national calls, also citing cost.

Concerns about cost have also made VoIP services like Skype (News - Alert) very popular, with 34 percent of EU citizens using Internet calling services, up seven points over the previous year. Bulgarians were the most avid users, with 54 percent, followed by Cyprus at 55 percent. Of VoIP users, 28 percent called other users on the same network for free, while four percent used it to make cheaper international calls. Portugal, Italy, Spain and Greece used these services less frequently, though they are getting more popular there.

On the other hand, many households do have a wired broadband Internet connection. Over 72 percent of households in the EU have broadband, up from 67.3 percent in 2011. Even a couple of countries with lower mobile usage experienced broadband growth. More than 50 percent of each EU member state had more than 50 percent of its population connected to broadband.