The Office of National Statistics (ONS) has issued its latest quarterly Internet access report to the end of June 2008. Broadband now accounts for 93.2% of all Internet connections, up from 91.6% in March 2008. In addition, 16.46m (65%) of UK households now have Internet access, an increase of 1.23m since 2007.

Unfortunately the news isn't all good; in fact the ONS reported its first -0.3% DECLINE in new Internet Connections for Q2, after having seen only a minor increase of 0.5% during Q1-2008. Few would have expected the decline to hit so suddenly, though market saturation and the credit crunch has been a slowing factor for some months now:


It's worth pointing out that the ONS does not yet appear to factor in the full influence of Mobile Broadband services, which have managed to gain over 2m connections in the space of just one year. We suspect that this would mitigate such falls if it were to be correctly tracked.

Meanwhile Dialup connections have continued their decline as users migrate over to broadband, dropping by 20.1% from 8.4% in Q1-2008 to 6.8% in Q2. The previous Q4-2007 to Q1-2008 period saw a slower decrease of just 15%.

The report also keeps track of average "ADVERTISED" broadband speeds, which do not reflect the true performance received by customers:


The proportion of UK households without an Internet connection fell to 35% in 2008. The most common response, when adults were asked why their household did not have an Internet connection, was that they did not need it (34%); this compares with 24% in 2006.

Just 24% said they did not want Internet access, which is a huge increase on 3% in 2006. Meanwhile 15% found the equipment costs too high, a further 15% claimed to lack the necessary skills to use broadband, 11% blamed high access costs and 10% said they had access to the Internet elsewhere.

As in 2007, men were more likely to access the Internet than women (75% compared with 66% respectively). Adults aged 65 plus were still the least likely to use the Internet, with 70% stating they had never used it, down from 82% in 2006.

In 2008, the proportion of adults who were recent Internet users who accessed the Internet every day or almost every day was 69% (23.5m adults). The 16-24 age group used it most, with 77% using it every day or almost every day.

The most popular activity of recent Internet users was sending or receiving emails at 87% and nearly half (49%) had used Internet banking.