A whopping 8 million users have surfed the net on their mobile phone in the first quarter of 2009

More than two thirds of UK Households have a broadband connection according to data produced by Ofcom with mobile broadband apparently accounting for a significant number of new signings.

The Ofcom report shows that broadband is present in 68 percent of UK homes in March 2009 compared to 58 percent a year earlier. Furthermore, the average time spent online per day jumped from 9 minutes in 2004 to a jaw-dropping 25 minutes in 2009.

The rate of growth is expected to be sustained given the success of mobile broadband; in May 2009, more than 250,000 customers got a new mobile broadband package compared to 139,000 last year. This means that roughly one in nine households in the UK now have a mobile broadband account.

But the bulk of UK internet access is still done through fixed line because of the reliability, much faster speed, the fact that wireless internet allows inhouse roaming and the advantage that most fixed-line broadband packages offer ample data transfer limits.

Hence, Ofcom suggests that many customers actually use mobile broadband to complement rather than replace fixed-line broadband. A whopping 8 million users have surfed the net on their mobile phone in the first quarter of 2009, a 40 percent jump over the same period in 2008.

Furthermore, the amount each household spent on average on internet services fell from £11.37 in 2007 to £10.71 in 2008. The amount almost certainly excludes line rental and might have been adjusted for inflation.