UK doubles broadband internet subscriptions

The number of broadband UK internet subscribers has almost doubled during the last year, according to government figures.

The Office for National Statistics has reported that market share for permanent broadband connections has continued to increase and now stands at 27.2 per cent, compared with 14.5 per cent a year before.

Dial-up connections continued to decrease in April 2004, and there are now fewer dial-up subscriptions than in January 2001 when the index started.

Dial-up and permanent internet connections were found to have continued to show quite different patterns of annual growth.

"The year-on-year decrease to April 2004 was 6.8 per cent for dial-up connections with a decrease of 1.9 per cent from March 2004 to April 2004," National Statistics said in a statement.

"There was a year-on-year increase of 101.1 per cent for permanent [broadband] connections with a monthly increase of 6.1 per cent,"

Permanent connections were found to have continued to increase their market share to make up 27.2 per cent of total subscriptions in April 2004, up from 25.7 per cent in March 2004.

National Statistics said this increase in the market share reflects the introduction of new pricing plans and the continued increase in availability of broadband services.

Dial-up connections continued to dominate the overall number of subscriptions but decreased to 72.8 per cent in April 2004, according to the report.