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28 percent of UK homes -- over seven million households -- are now connected to the Internet according to research published on Wednesday by Oftel, the watchdog for the UK telecoms industry.
The research reveals that almost one million of those went on-line in the three months to August. Over one a half million are using an unmetered Web access package.
That number is still well ahead of Irish home access, which is estimated by Amarach Consulting to be about 19 percent, or 219,000 homes.
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. Ireland is fourth cheapest for metered off-peak access, behind the UK, Spain, and Italy, and was not included in the unmetered category.
"The UK has some of the most competitive Internet access prices in Europe,” said David Edmonds, the Director General of Telecommunications with Oftel. “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 customers.”
The Oftel report also found that the number of UK consumers with digital TV has risen by 10 percent in the last three months to a total of 5.25 million homes (21 percent). One in ten homes with digital TV use it to access the Internet, and 15 percent to use e-mail.
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