Topic: Dial-up access to Internet increasing once again

[Clive]

Dial-up access to Internet increasing once again
[Computer Buyer] 12:15

The Office of National Statistics has published its latest monthly report on UK Internet connectivity, covering the month of January 2003.
The headline figure is that the total number of subscriptions to the Internet has increased 4.5 per cent between January 2002 and January 2003. On a month-by-month basis, there has been a growth of 1.8 per cent on December 2002.

Of more interest is the fact that dial-up access to the Internet has rallied somewhat. Month by month we have been charting the steady rise of broadband, permanent connections with a corresponding decline in dial-up-based access. This month, however, dial-up subscriptions rose for the first time since September 2002. While this month saw a 0.9 per cent in dial-up connections, there has been a year on year decline of 3.8 per cent.

By contrast, the year-on-year growth of dedicated connections (broadband or fixed lines, but not ISDN) was 255.7 per cent. From December 2002 to January 2003, the increase was 9.0 per cent (this compares with an increase of 7.3 per cent last month - which saw permanent subscriptions just reach 10 per cent). The percentage of fixed, fast access to the Internet now stands at 10.8 per cent

These numbers are based on the Office of National Statistics' monthly survey of ISPs. The term 'subscriptions' is a wide-embracing reference to the range of packages made available by ISPs.