Wheels fall off UK internet bandwagon

Between January 2004 and January 2005 there was a minuscule two per cent increase in the number of active UK subscriptions to the internet, according to the latest monthly update to the survey of ISPs published by National Statistics.

However, the report found that broadband use has almost doubled. Permanent broadband connections continued to increase market share and made up 41 per cent of all subscriptions in January 2005, up from 39.5 per cent in December 2004.

There was a year-on-year increase of 86.2 per cent for subscriptions to permanent broadband connections, with a monthly increase in January of five per cent.

In contrast dial-up connections continued to decrease, with a year-on-year fall to January 2005 of 22.4 per cent. The decrease from December 2004 to January 2005 was 1.4 per cent.

However, dial-up still represents the majority of connections, despite its share dropping to 59 per cent of all connections in January 2005.

In the same month, the percentage of active subscriptions using free access or billed access was 32 per cent, compared with 39 per cent a year before.

The percentage of those paying a fixed rate for unmetered dial-up access decreased to 23 per cent.

The percentage of active subscriptions using a mixed subscription type (fixed rate plus calls) remained at four per cent, while always-on subscriptions rose to 41 per cent compared with 22 per cent in January 2004.