COM-425 Week 1

In 2006, the Office for National Statistics first held a survey aiming to find out how many households had access to the internet in the United Kingdom.  When the survey was first held, the number of households in the UK was 25.3 million.  Of this, 57% (14.26 million) of households had access to the internet.  In 2007, this increased to 61% (15.23 million households) and in 2008 it increased to 65% (16.46million households).  This is an average increase of 4% (1.1 million households) per year.  Over the two years, the number of households gaining access to the internet rose by 2.2million. 

 

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=8

When carrying out the survey, the Office for National Statistics also wanted to find out how these households were connected to the internet.  This would be either a dial-up or broadband connection.  In 2006, 10.12 million households were connected to the internet using broadband.  This meant that 70% of all connections to the internet were broadband and only 30% were dial-up connections.  In 2007%, over half the UK’s households were connected to the internet via broadband and 84% of all household connections were broadband connections.  In 2008, this rose again by another 2% meaning that 14.16 million households in the UK were connected to the internet via broadband. 

 
From these statistics we learn that the number of households in the UK without an internet connection has fallen significantly in two years and that the number of broadband users across the UK is increasing on average by 1million each year.  This will make the broadband market very competitive in the next few years with companies looking to grow throughout the UK and also upgrade their connections so they are always one step ahead of their rivals.  It also shows us that the market for dial up has decreased significantly and could soon be non-existent.