Nine in 10 UK surfers on broadband

Nearly nine out of 10 connections to the internet in the UK are now via broadband, according to the latest figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

The September edition of the ONS Internet Connectivity report (PDF) found that broadband accounted for 88.4 per cent of all connections, up from 86.2 per cent in June.

The index of all connections rose by 1.5 per cent between June and September to 117.6, compared with a base of 100 in March 2005.

Dial-up connections continued to decline, but still accounted for 11.6 per cent of all UK internet connections in September.

Broadband's market share has been increasing since the index began in 2001, reflecting its continuing popularity, widespread availability and competitive connection packages.

The indices of active subscriptions for dial-up and broadband were 26.8 and 211.6 respectively in September, when compared to a base of 100 in March 2005.

Broadband connections saw a year-on-year increase of 26 per cent, and a quarterly increase of 4.1 per cent.

Dial-up connections continued to decrease, seeing a year-on-year fall of 48.1 per cent to September 2007.

The ONS explained that the low use of dial-up connections has prompted the organisation to cease comparing different types of dial-up and to focus on broadband connection speed categories.

The report compared the advertised maximum speed for each broadband subscription, but warned that this may not be the speed attained by the end user.

Speed of connection is affected by issues such as line quality and distance from the local exchange.

As the proportion of slower speed connections has decreased, the proportion of higher speed connections has increased.

Just under half of connections had a speed greater than 2Mbps in September, up from 47.2 per cent in June and 37.5 per cent in December 2006.

Over the same period, the percentage of connections with a speed of less than or equal to 2Mbps decreased to 50.8 per cent in September, from 52.8 per cent in June and 62 per cent in December 2006.