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The data, which covers April 2004, indicates that there has been a 9.1 per cent increase in people subscribing to Internet access over April 2003. The government body reports that there was a 0.2 per cent increase from March to April.

The underlying trend remains constant: dial-up access is diminishing as always-on permanent connections - i.e. broadband - continue to grow. Broadband now accounts for 27.2

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per cent of Internet connections, this is up 1.5 per cent on the previous month and up from the 14.5 per cent of a year ago. Dial-up subscriptions saw a 6.8 year-on-year decrease.

Recent figures from BT in this area - BT previews research projects at Adastral Park [part 2] - give a more detailed breakdown of broadband usage.

BT's latest broadband stats are that 96 per cent of customers are within range of broadband access, with 2,600 enabled exchanges representing 90 per cent of exchange conversion (99.6 per cent is the target for the summer of 2005). And with people adopting broadband at the rate of 45,000 a week, currently 2.5mn households are broadband enabled.

You can read the latest report on the Office of National Statistics website.