The number of broadband connections has increased by almost 30% in the last year, according to new data from the Communications Regulator.
The figure takes fixed line and mobile broadband connections into account.
In its latest report, covering trends for the first three months of 2009, ComReg says there are now 1,272,000 active broadband connections in Ireland.
However, mobile subscriptions make up over 500,000 of this total, signifying the difficulty many people still have in accessing fixed line connections in different parts of the country.
The number of WiFi access points - in hotels and airports etc - increased by 41.8% between the first quarter of 2008 and 2009.
There has been a further decline in the number of so-called ‘narrowband’ users, with just over 200,000 subscribers using slower dial-up connections; a drop of 15% on the previous quarter.
Other findings in the Regulator's latest quarterly report show mobile to mobile traffic accounts for 38% of all voice calls made here.
However, the number of mobile phone subscriptions has fallen for the first time in four years and now stands at just over 4.9m, down 2.4% on the previous quarter.
Despite this reduction, the total number of texts sent in the first three months of the year increased to 2.9bn –
That is an average of 184 messages per month, for every SIM card in the country.
There has also been a 43% increase in the number of multimedia messages being sent over the last year.
When it comes to broadcasting, ComReg's data shows that 75% of Irish homes are paying for digital or cable television services.
Sky has almost 580,000 customers here, and a further 500,000 households are paying for a cable or MMDS service.
