Ref: 76/00
Date: 11 October 2000

Home access to the Internet and take up of digital TV services continues to grow at a rapid rate, according to latest research published today by Oftel.

• Seven million UK homes (28 per cent) are now connected to the Internet, with almost one million homes going on line in the three months to August

• Over one and half million domestic subscribers are now using an unmetered package to access the Internet.

• The number of consumers with digital TV has risen by 10 per cent in the last three months to a total of 5.25 million homes (21 per cent).

• 10 per cent of homes with digital TV use it to access the Internet, and 15 per cent to use e-mail.

Oftel’s research follows on from latest figures from the OECD which shows that  the UK is the cheapest country in Europe for unmetered off-peak access, and remains among the cheapest for metered off-peak access.

The UK is now below the OECD average for all types of user, with the price of 40 hours peak time usage down by 36 per cent since March.

David Edmonds, Director General of Telecommunications, said:

"The UK continues to become an online community, using the Internet to study, communicate and buy.

"The UK has some of the most competitive Internet access prices in Europe and Oftel will continue to ensure that consumers get the best deal possible.

"It is particularly encouraging to see an increase in unmetered Internet access following Oftel's intervention to require BT to provide a wholesale product for operators to use to supply their customers.

"The rapid increase in the take up of digital TV will attract even more UK customers to the Internet."

Notes to Editors

1 Consumers' use of Internet: Summary of Oftel residential survey August 2000 is available on Oftel's website at www.oftel.gov.uk/cmu/research/int1000.htm Consumers' use of digital TV is at www.oftel.gov.uk/cmu/research/digi1000.htm This is the second in series of quarterly reports on the residential telecoms market. Oftel will publish its second quarterly survey of small businesses shortly. The results of this and other research is used by Oftel when making policy decisions to meet its goal of achieving the best deal for consumers.

2 This report provides an overview of the key findings from Oftel’s Residential Consumer Survey (Q2 August June 2000) conducted by MORI. The survey interviewed a representative sample of 2092 adults in the UK, reflecting the UK profile of age, sex, social grade, region and employment status.

3 The OECD figures are based on the Internet and telephone packages provided by the incumbent in each country. As such the comparisons only include BT’s products in the UK and do not include competitive packages from alternative providers such as ntl, telewest, AOL etc. Including these figures would improve the UK position further. The latest OECD Internet Access Price Comparisons can be found at: http://www.oecd.org/dsti/sti/it/cm/stats/isp-price99.htm

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