UK broadband usage at record high
Nearly nine out of ten UK Internet users are now connecting via broadband, according to the latest government figures.
The Office of National Statistics (ONS) has revealed that 88.4% of net users in the United Kingdom are now taking advantage of fast, high-bandwidth services.
In the move towards faster services the popularity of dial-up connections has decreased sharply, with a quarterly fall of 14.9% in usage. The statistics also show that 49.2% of broadband connections of 2 Mbps or over.
Although broadband take-up in the UK has been strong since the ONS began monitoring usage in 2001, there are signs that numbers may be approaching a plateau. The last 12 months has seen a 26% growth in the broadband market, but the period from June to September saw only a 2.2% rise.
Elsewhere, US analyst firm Nemertes Research has warned that the widespread global adoption of broadband technology and heavy demand for more bandwidth intensive applications could see networks struggling to cope with the amount of data they are required to carry.
They estimate that unless around $137 billion are spent upgrading networks, the Internet could run out of capacity as early as 2010.
Their report predicts that the strain on the network could see a return to the days of dial-up levels of performance, with web pages loading slowly and online purchases sometimes taking more than one attempt.
“The next Amazon, Google or YouTube might not arise, not from a lack of user demand but because of insufficient infrastructure preventing applications and companies emerging,” claims the report.
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