Offline Households Show Little Interest In Going Online
The proportion of households without internet access which think it is not important to have home access to the internet has increased steeply between mid-2005 and early 2006, from 51.7% to 74.6%, according to new research from Point Topic.
Lack of need or interest, cost or other material constraints, and lack of the necessary skills are the three main reasons given for not getting internet access.
According to the Broadband Consumer Survey 2 almost everybody has at least heard of the internet, but only 26% of respondents from non-access households believe they have a good knowledge of how to use it.
In addition, when asked to consider how likely they were to get access to the internet in the next 6 months if obstacles were to be removed, 42.8% of households declined to answer, whilst about 16% would consider it very likely or fairly likely to get internet access in such circumstances.
Katja Mueller, chief analyst at Point Topic, said: “Many of those who thought it was important to have the internet have signed up to a service already.
“As the number of non-access households shrinks, those that are left are increasingly resistant to its appeal. This could prove a high barrier to achieving much higher levels of internet access.”
Research released by Point Topic earlier this month said that the proportion of UK households with broadband will almost double, from 34% at the end of 2005 to 64% at the end of 2008 (see 64% Of UK Households On Broadband By 2008).
However, Point Topic also revealed that broadband’s quarterly growth rate in Q2 2006 was the lowest ever, just 7.1% worldwide and 5.6% in Western Europe (see Lowest Quarterly Growth Rate In Broadband History).