Broadband Britain to overtake dial-up

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UK, Dial-up, Broadband

NEWS

Latest figures from the Office of National Statistics show that broadband is poised to overtake dial-up as the most popular way of accessing the Internet in the UK.

The ONS reported on Monday that, in April 2005, 49.2 percent of UK Web users were surfing over a high-speed connection, versus 50.8 percent using dial-up. A year before, broadband represented just 28.5 percent of the market.

Britain has enjoyed a protracted broadband boom, fuelled by lower prices and greater availability. Today, it is possible to get a capped broadband connection for under £20 a month, a far cry from the £50 or more a month that was charged for a broadband connection in 2001.

The rising popularity of broadband has important ramifications for companies that do business online. They can offer more data-rich Web sites without the danger that visitors will abandon them because they download too slowly, and can also consider making greater use of video.

Talkback

One worrrying trend was highlighted in your article - increasing use of high-bandwidth graphics and animations for no good reason.

This means that many web pages can only be accesed via braodband - dial up or GSM/GPRS just aren't enough.

This will make all the promised new 'internet anyware' mobile devices more or less irrelevant. Even WiFi devices dontalways get much actual bandwidth - you are often sharing a 1 Meg link with a lot of other people.

so the broadband 'revolution' could block the 'internet anywhere' one.

via Facebook 21 June, 2005 11:01
Reply

IP, disruptive times... the timeline of UK communications (from memory):

2000
Internet use (data) overtakes voice as traffic on UK landlines

2002
mobile overtakes landline for voice

2005
broadband overtakes dial-up for Internet access

Q -
the extent of VoIP use over broadband connections?

Feel free anyone to clarify my vague memory above, or add similar breakthrough moments....

via Facebook 25 June, 2005 17:57
Reply

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