The index of all connections rose to 107.3 in March 2006 from the base month of March 2005. The index increased by 3.7 per cent between December 2005 and March 2006.
Broadband and dial-up Internet connections
The market share of broadband connections has been increasing ever since the index began, reflecting its growing popularity, affordability and widespread availability. This increase has been maintained following the introduction of the new base quarter in March 2006.
In March 2006, the indices of active subscriptions for dial-up and broadband connections were 65.0 and 151.1 respectively, when compared to their base of 100 in March 2005.
Broadband connections rose to 69.2 per cent of all connections in March 2006, up from 65.1 per cent in December 2005. There was a year on year increase in the index of 51.1 per cent, with a quarterly increase of 10.2 per cent in March 2006.
Dial-up connections continued to decrease, with a year on year fall in the index of 35 per cent to March 2006. The quarterly decrease, from December 2005 to March 2006, was 8.3 per cent.
Type of subscription
A recent review of the Internet Service Providers Survey recommended that the number of dial-up categories should be reduced, but to retain the differentiation between unmetered and metered types of connection. As a result, the categories of free access/billing and mixed access, have been replaced with the metered dial-up category. The unmetered dial-up and broadband categories remain as before.
In March 2006, the percentage of active subscriptions using metered dial-up access was 21.7 per cent, compared with 32.2 per cent a year before. The percentage of those paying a fixed rate for unmetered dial-up access was 9.1 per cent compared with 18.7 per cent a year before. Broadband subscriptions rose to 69.2 per cent compared with 49.1 per cent in March 2005.
Quelle/Source: Publictechnology, 24.05.2006
