The research covers residential and business use of telecoms services during August 2002.

The research also shows that consumers continue to make use of the alternatives available to them. For example, over a third of businesses have switched mobile network and the majority of these have taken advantage of the ability to retain their mobile numbers.

Although 90 per cent of consumers are happy with the service they receive from their mobile phone company, only 50 per cent are satisfied with the cost of calling people on other networks from their mobile phone.

Peter Waller, Deputy Director General of Telecommunications, said today:

"A third of consumers who use dial-up Internet access are interested in upgrading to high speed broadband access. This shows that there is still plenty of room for growth beyond the one million broadband connections the UK has already reached.

"Oftel’s research also shows that there is growing awareness amongst consumers of the new directory enquiry services which Oftel has helped to introduce."

Oftel's latest research on business and consumer use of fixed, Internet and mobile telephony is published on its website.

Notes to Editors

1. The research and trends information is available on Oftel's website at: www.oftel.gov.uk/publications/research. Hard copies are available from our research unit by telephone: 020 7634 8761.

2. Business survey – conducted amongst 831 businesses – representative sample of UK small and medium businesses (51-250 employees and minimum annual turnover of £50K). Residential survey – conducted amongst representative sample of 2312 UK adults. Full sample details can be found within the reports.

3. The question phrasing for identifying the type of Internet package used has been changed this quarter within both the residential and business surveys. This has had some impact on results. Full details of this change and the implications can be found within the reports.