Connecting to the internet

There are many and varied ways of connecting to the Internet. For the vast majority of the Internet's existence, most people connected using the maddeningly slow click-and-wait experience of a dial-up connection. By June 2005, the number of the newer and faster broadband connections in the UK exceeded dial-up connections for the first time (approximately 1/3 broadband cable and 2/3 broadband ADSL). By the middle of 2006, 40% of households in the UK had a broadband connection, compared to just 28% in 2005. In the last quarter of 2006, the total number of broadband subscriptions in the UK had topped the 13 million mark (one subscriber may equate to multiple users sharing one connection). Mobile Internet access via mobile phones and other devices will mark the biggest change in the way that we access the Internet and is likely to have a profound effect on our everyday lives. In this section, we look at the various ways of connecting to the Internet and compare the features, benefits and costs of each.