The Appeal of Broadband

According to the latest data from BMRB Interactive, there are now 15.4 million home Internet users in the GB. The proportion who have a broadband connection continues to increase - from 7% in November 2001 to 9% in February 2002, to 12% now. Almost 2 million people now have a home broadband connection.

The profile of the broadband group is classic for early-adopters. They are slightly more likely to be male (58%), young (66% are aged under 35), up-market (seven in ten are social grade ABC1) and long-term heavy Internet users (eight in ten use the Internet every day or most days and two-thirds have been using the Internet for more than two years). Just one quarter use the Internet ONLY at home. They are also much more likely than the average Internet user to make online transactions. Two-thirds of them shop online and half of them bank online.

There is substantial interest in broadband amongst the rest of the Internet community with 10% very likely to upgrade in the next year and a further 17% quite likely. The demographics of the intenders is skewed in the same way as the early adopters, but to a less extreme extent, suggesting that broadband is appealing to an expanding niche.

NTL is the leading provider of broadband Internet, supplying 41% of the total. About a quarter of broadband users use Telewest and a fifth use BT. However, BT seems to have the edge over NTL amongst those intending to go broadband in the future. BT is the most preferred supplier, chosen by 37%, followed by NTL (mentioned by 20%) and Telewest (9%). However, a quarter are unsure of the provider they would be most likely to use. There is low intended usage for the most popular ISPs, Freeserve and AOL. They were only mentioned by 3% and 2% respectively. This probably reflects low awareness of the broadband services that they offer.

The motivation to adopt broadband differs greatly by gender and age. Amongst all Internet users, women consider the main advantage of broadband to be the ability to use the phone whilst they are online (mentioned by 57%, compared to 36% of men). This is not the case for men who are most interested by a faster page downloads (42%, compared to 23% for women). Older Internet users are much less interested in using the phone and Internet at the same time. Those age 25-34 and the over 55s are the most attracted by the faster Internet experience. The third most appealing feature is not having to establish a dial-up connection; 6% mention an 'always on' connection and 5% mention the ability to be immediately online. Just a few percent mention content issues as being the main benefit of broadband.

All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.