Internet Connectivity Continues To Rise

The number of subscriptions to the internet increased by 15.3% between January 2001 and January 2002, according to the latest Index of Internet Connectivity report from the Office Of National Statistics (ONS).

The report shows that subscriptions to ISPs rose by 4.3% during the first quarter of 2001 before falling during each month of the second quarter. Overall, internet connectivity fell by 2.3% between April and June 2001 but increased during the second half of the year, with significant growth being displayed in August and October.

The largest largest month on month increase since the survey began took place between December 2001 and January 2002, with the number of subscriptions rising by 4.2%.

During January 2002 subscription levels increased by 4.2% month on month for dial-up connections and 10.7% for permanent connections. The report shows that dial-up method is still the most popular way of accessing the internet, despite permanent connections becoming increasingly common. Permanent connections made up 3.2% of total subscriptions in January 2002, up from 3% in December 2001.

The uptake of permanent internet connections is expected to increase over the coming months. NTL recently launched a new broadband internet service for residential users which it claims is the UK’s “fastest ever” (see NTL Unveils UK’s Fastest Internet Service) and at the beginning of March BT Openworld announced plans to launch a multimillion pound marketing campaign to drive broadband uptake in the UK (see BT Openworld To Promote Broadband Uptake).

Office of National Statistics: 020 7533 5888 www.statistics.gov.uk

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