The government and Internet service providers need to come up with more innovative content and services to spur demand for broadband Internet connections, or the Cabinet's goal to bring broadband access to 6 million households in the nation by 2008 is not likely to be attained, according to a report released yesterday.
The report, conducted by Fu Jen Catholic University's department of statistics information science under a Taiwan Network Information Center commission, polled households in 23 cities and counties in Taiwan from May 30 to June 30 with a valid sample of 3,059.
The report indicated that the number of households with broadband Internet access has reached 4.08 million as of the end of last month, up from 3.83 million as the end of January, or 56.84 percent of all Internet users in Taiwan.
The growth rate in the January to June period, however, has declined to 2.24 percent from 4.44 percent from six months ago, the report showed.
"Given the flattening curve, it is hard to expand the number of broadband users to 6 million households by the end of 2007, as the government planned, if there are no incentives to drive up demand," Liang Te-hsin (梁德馨), associate professor of statistics information science at Fu Jen Catholic University, told a press conference yesterday.
Most of the potential Internet users, ranging from 12 to 35 years old, have already adopted broadband access and therefore there is only a small market left to exploit, the report said.
Users who have no broadband connection are mostly above 56 years of age and are not interested in or have no demand for the facility, the report said.
Lu Ai-chin (呂愛琴), acting executive director of the center, suggested that with the gradual prevalence of digital broadcasting or multimedia-on-demand service that integrate various functions such as banking or shopping on TV, broadband can spread faster.
The report also said that the number of individual Internet users in Taiwan has reached 14.66 million, up from 13.8 million in January, or 64.78 percent of Taiwan's population.
Wireless Internet connection is another infrastructure that the government
is keen to promote. However, the report showed that only 15.94 percent of
users connect to the Internet through wireless access, and 7.71 percent of
them use wireless connections via mobile devices such as cellphones or
personal digital assistants.
Liang shrugged off concerns over the sluggish growth process, saying
adoption of wireless access will take off only after third-generation mobile
handsets or smart phones have become prevalent among users.
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