Silver surfers busy online

It's official. According to Ofcom, the internet is no longer just a young person's playground.

The telecommunications regulator found in its annual Communications Market report 2007 that one-quarter of the over-50s, commonly known as silver surfers, are internet users. They now account for 30 per cent of all time spent online by people in the UK, with those over 65 spending an average of 42 hours online every month.

However, they are not alone; overall average daily internet use is up. In 2006 it stood at 36 minutes daily; up 158 per cent on 2002.

Although TV viewing still greatly exceeded this, at an average three hours 36 minutes per day, Ofcom's 330-page report shows online pastimes and other digital communications technologies are eating into this.

It said consumers are increasingly using new digital communications services to take control of how, when and where they access and use communications services.

This has lead to time spent watching television dropping four per cent a day, listening to radio down two per cent to two hours and 50 minutes a day and time spent daily on a fixed-line phone down eight per cent to seven minutes.

Growth areas include internet telephony services. At the end of 2006, two in 10 of the respondents to Ofcom's survey said they were phoning online, up from around one in 10 at the end of 2005.

Mobile phone usage is also up. By the end of 2006 there was more than double the number of mobile connections (69.7 million) than landline connections (33.6 million). People are also using their mobiles for much more than just making phone calls.

Some four in 10 people use their phone as a digital camera, two in 10 as a portable games console and one in 10 for internet access or to listen to FM radio.

Sending texts continues to grow in popularity, with people in the UK sending 20 per cent more texts than the previous year with an average of 12 text messages per mobile per week.

Unsurprisingly, mobiles and youngsters are a perfect match. With over three-quarters of 11 year olds now having their own mobile phone, their usage was up with 53 per cent saying they use their phones more often, compared with 50 per cent in 2005.

Wireless connections, digital television, personal video recorders and digital radio are all growing in popularity and changing people's habits, said Ofcom.

The reports also showed this pressure on traditional media has lead to a change in advertising spend. The figure for online adverts now accounts for almost half (44 per cent) of that spent on all TV advertising.

However, while consumers are getting more out of their communications services, the amount they are spending on them continues to fall. Last year, the average household's spend on communications services was £92.65 per month, down from £94.03 in 2005.

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