The overall Internet penetration rate of Taiwan is estimated at 67.69 percent, with approximately 15.38 million people being Internet users, according to a survey released by the Taiwan Network Information Center (TWNIC) on Friday.
An estimated 5.25 million, or 72.11 percent, of households have Internet access, with 4.74 million households, or 65.05 percent, using broadband, the survey found.
The survey shows that the household Internet penetration rate was highest in Taipei (86.01 percent) , followed by Kaohsiung (84.61 percent).
In terms of the forms of networking, 78.94 percent of the households were using ADSL, 6.22 percent were using cable modem, 4.15 percent were using paid telephone lines, 2.57 percent were using leased line access, 1.12 percent were using free telephone lines and 0.23 percent were using community Internet access.
While 84.27 percent of the ADSL household subscribers were customers of Chunghwa Telecom's Hinet service, only 2.92 percent were APOL customers and 2.83 percent were TFN customers.
Among the Internet users, 18.37 percent, or 3.57 million, have wireless broadband access and 9.53 percent, or 1.85 million users, access the Internet through mobile broadband services, the said.
A TWNIC official said that compared with an 80.64 percent penetration rate for ADSL broadband access, the ratios of wireless and mobile access were significantly lower, indicating that efforts were required to make them available to more users.
According to the poll, 60.67 percent of mobile access users choose GPRS service, 12.95 percent use PHS, 11.06 percent use 3G and 9.47 percent use WAP.
Of the mobile users, 39.80 percent said they use the service to download ring-tones, 18.27 percent said they use it to surf and 12.91 percent said they use it to send or receive e-mails.
A total of 92.9 percent of individual broadband Internet users said they use the Internet most often at home.
While 17.79 percent of individual Internet users spend one hour to two hours per day on average on weekdays using the Internet, 15.9 percent spend two hours to three hours per day.
On the functions used most frequently by Internet users, 70.99 percent of the respondents said that they use the Internet most often to browse Web sites, 47.5 percent to send or receive e-mail, 34.38 percent to search data, 25.77 percent to use instant messenging to chat with friends, 22.52 percent to play online games and 12.49 percent to download software.
The survey was conducted by the TWNIC between May 30 and June 30 among 3,192 people aged 12 years or older through telephone interviews. The poll had a margin of error of 1.79 percentage points.
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