By Sylvia Carr, 18 August 2004 12:05
NEWS The popularity of broadband continues to grow in the UK, with the number of subscriptions nearly doubling over the past year.
The number of permanent connections - or always-on links provided by DSL or cable modems - reached 29.5 per cent of the total internet connections in June 2004, compared to 27.8 per cent in May and 16.1 per cent a year ago, according to the Office for National Statistics, or ONS.
This is no surprise, given the trend toward lower prices and wider availability of broadband.
Dial-up, meanwhile, becomes ever less popular, with the number of connections falling 10.3 per cent since last year. There are now fewer dial-up subscriptions than when the ONS began to collect internet data in January 2001.
When it comes to paying for internet access, the trend is toward a fixed monthly or quarterly rate. In June 2004, 30 per cent of internet users paid via fixed rate, nearly double the percentage of last year.
The number using free or billed access, whereby users pay per call, fell to 35 per cent from 41 per cent last year. Mixed plans, which offer both a fixed rate plus per-call charges, make up 5 per cent of plans.
The ONS collects its monthly internet statistics by surveying a panel of ISPs.
Comments
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1. Mike W
After Home Highway Robbery, I was relieved when told finally that our local exchange was miraculously being enabled for BB, since it hadn't even had a threshold set.
Having stumped up the high costs of Home Highway for a couple of years, just for the benefit of an 'always on' 64kbit connnection, I'm sure I can put the savings to good use ... and the 8x speed improvement!
2. Chris Lake
Yep, heard this one before, but the speed issue is significantly undermining the real growth in 'broadband', yet everyone keeps dodging the issue.
Why not just call a 128kbps connection 'double dial-up'? Doesn't seem very broad to me. This is low-rent broadband, rather than low-rate broadband. You get you emails delivered TWICE as fast, not TEN times as fast. Geddit?
Speeds of around 370kbps are where you need to be for decent quality video. Lower speeds will impact the user experience, even though the user thinks they are broadband-connected. They are not. Rich content suffers all round. Doh.
Maybe it just depends on the user and their own web usage habits, but all this backpatting seems very crass when you look deeper into these 'broadband' users.
We should note that choosing broadband on the basis of price is also a bad idea.
Service levels and contention rates are all-important. Broadband operators should know this.
In fact many do, but when the likes of Tiscali and NTL started peddling low-rate 'broadband' (128/150kbps) and charging a few quid less for it, the price war began in earnest.
What are the TRUE figures of broadband usage/growth in this country?
I want these figures segmented on the basis of speed, rather than the all-encompassing and ill-used term: 'broadband'.
Then we'll all get a clearer picture of how the land really lies.
Chris Lake
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