The July update to a monthly survey of ISPs shows that 31% of us
now have a permanent connection to the internet, as opposed to the
29% who pay a fixed rate for unmetered access, either through ISDN
(Integrated Services Digital Network) or an analogue modem.
According to the ONS, in the year to July there has been an
increase of 93.7% in the number of permanent internet connections,
and a decrease of 11.2% in the number of dial-up connections, while
overall active subscriptions to the internet have increased by 6.7%
in the same period.
The increase in the market share for permanent connections
reflects the continued marketing drive, competitive pricing and the
increase in availability of broadband services, says the ONS.
However, dial-up (metered and unmetered) still dominates the
overall number of subscriptions despite decreasing to just over 69%
of all subscriptions in July 2004.
The monthly survey is part of the Government's strategy of
making the UK "the best environment in the world to do e-commerce"
and involves the collection of data from a panel of ISPs on the
number of active subscriptions, types of connections to the
internet and access plans used.
