UK homes on Net pass 10 million mark

Ten million homes in the UK are hooked up to the Net, according to the latest research from telecoms regulator Oftel.

While four million homes have connected to the Net during the last year, one-and-a-half million homes signed up in the three months between February 2001 and May 2001.

The rise in home usage appears to tie-in with the growing availability of unmetered narrowband access to the Net which caps the cost of Net access for both home users and ISPs.

The research shows that a quarter of all UK homes that use the Net have unmetered packages.

The survey also shows that broadband take-up remains insignificant - too small even to measure accurately.

While Oftel's research claims that 2 per cent of Net users have DSL, it tempers its finding by adding that industry estimates suggest this figure is actually less than 1 per cent.

In addition, 3 per cent of consumers claimed to be using cable modems to access the Net although Oftel reports that, once again, industry estimates for cable modem use are actually less than 1 per cent.

In a bid to work out why take-up of broadband services is so low the report concludes: "Although based on a small sample, ADSL users seem to be under the age of 34 and amongst the AB social grades with higher household income, which perhaps indicates that the cost of this service continues to play a major part in uptake."

ADSL too expensive? Never. ®