The amount of people in the UK now subscribing to broadband packages has hit 13 million, according to research from Point Topic.
This reflects a worldwide trend, which has seen a boost in the number of high speed internet connections being set up in domestic surroundings and in the workplace.
Increasing broadband uptake by 33%, the UK’s new user figure was slightly higher than the world average, which saw the number of new subscribers rise by 30%.
Despite this, the UK is lagging behind in the new subscriber stakes, with India being the fastest growing broadband region, followed closely by Turkey which saw an 88% increase in the past year.
One of the driving forces behind the continued increase in people signing up to broadband services was the introduction of IPTV, said the research.
According to the data firm, watching TV programmes over the internet requires at least 3Mbps bandwidth in order to deliver seamless services.
The arrival of HDTV is also expected to lead to an increase in the number of broadband subscriptions, as this service can require up to 8Mbps of bandwidth – making conventional ADSL services unlikely to be able to accommodate this bandwidth-hungry service.
A new report from eMarketer revealed that at the end of 2006 there were approximately 251 million broadband households worldwide (see 251 Million Broadband Households Worldwide).
Meanwhile, the Internet Advertising Bureau has revealed that UK internet advertising expenditure grew 41% in 2006, crossing the £2 billion mark (see UK Internet Advertising Spend Grows 41%).
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