Yesterday Ofcom, the independent regulator for the UK’s communication industries, released its latest Communications Market Report – providing up-to-date information on the nation’s use of all communications technologies from Radio and Television through to the Internet.
Free to download, at 334 pages it is rather a lengthy read – but you can easily skip through it on screen and it does provide some very useful data for anyone looking to keep track of how Internet access and usage is changing in the UK (or indeed any form of communications usage).
A few highlights, just to whet your appetite…
- Overall, between home, work and other connections, 74% of UK adults now use the internet
- 65% of UK households now have a fixed line broadband connection – up from 58% last year
- Mobile broadband is growing rapidly, with over 250k new pre-pay mobile broadband connections in May 2009 alone. Overall some 12% of UK households have a mobile broadband connection, but 75% of these also have fixed-line broadband
- 23% of UK adults with home internet access watch catch-up TV online
- 38% of UK adults have set-up a social network profile – up from 21% last year, and with the fastest growth in the 35-54 age group
- The average UK Facebook user spends nearly six hours on the site each month
