16 per cent increase in UK Net connectivity

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By Alun Williams

Posted on 18 Sep 2002 at 12:10

Figures for UK Internet usage in July 2002 have been released by the National Statistics office.

The monthly stats for July reveal a 16.5 per cent year on year increase in the number of subscriptions to access the Internet. The month on month increase, from June 2002, stands at 1.2 per cent, the largest rise for six months.

The government body attributes the continuing uptake of broadband connections to advertising campaigns occurring on the back of a price cuts. And the rate of broadband take up is increasing.

While year on year broadband growth stands at 387 per cent, the figures show an 11.4 per cent increase from June to July 2002. This compares to the 10.2 per cent increase from May to June.

The figure for permanent connections now stands at 6.5 per cent of the total, up from 5.9 per cent last month.

Not everyone, however, has the option for a high-speed Internet experience and dial-up access continues to grow. In this area there was a slight increase of 0.5 per cent from June to July 2002, which represents a 10.7 per cent growth from July 2001.

In terms of the type of access plan used, the percentage of subscriptions using free access fell by one per cent, to 28 per cent. Meanwhile, unmetered access rose to 36 per cent and billed-access for call minutes fell by one per cent, to 18 per cent.

We previously reported - for June 2002 - a levelling out of dial-up connections alongside the increase in broadband take up.