Flat rate internet access subscriptions increased by 58% from 40,000 to 63,100 in the first quarter of the year, according to the Commission for Communication's Regulation's latest quarterly report.
ComReg said that the uptake for DSL subscriptions also increased from 25,300 to 36,000 in the three month period.
Mobile phone penetration now stands at 88% of the population or 3.5 million mobile subscribers at the end of March 2004. 122,000 mobile subscribers have 'ported' their number since the introduction of Mobile Number Portability last July, the ComReg report states.
Text messaging has grown by 25% since Q1 2003 with over 910 million text messages sent during the first quarter of 2004 - that is an average of 88 messages per subscriber per month.
ComReg's quarterly report shows that total revenue for fixed, mobile and broadcasting markets now stand at an estimated €3.57 billion, up 3% in the past year.
One in four people use the internet every day, according to research carried out by Amarach for ComReg, up 6% on the previous quarter. One in three people use the internet several times a week.
Today's quarterly report also includes the highlights of a survey of 400 large and small businesses on their attitudes to broadband. 57% of businesses surveyed use DSL for broadband access, while 21% use leased lines for broadband access.
75% of respondents say broadband has become more competitive over the last 12 months, while 91% say it has become more available in the last year. However, 20% of businesses surveyed had difficulty getting broadband.
