If you’re reading this then you’re already online and using the Internet, like half of the British population.

According to the latest research from Oftel, the government body that regulates internet services, two out of every five homes are online.

Around one in ten people use the net from libraries, cybercafes or a friend’s house.

Most people still have a dialup connection to the net, where they plug their computer into the phone line and call their internet service provider.

But this is starting to fall, and one in six people have a higher speed, always on, broadband connection instead.

Not only this, but broadband users are spending an average of seventeen hours a week online, compared to eleven hours a week for dialup users.

Perhaps it’s not surprising that once people don’t have to worry about getting connected, because their computer is online all the time it’s switched on, they use the net a lot more.

The total number of people connected has been the same for the last year, and this is starting to worry the government and all those people who want to sell you stuff online.

The government wants everyone to have access to the Internet by 2005, largely so that they can put as many services as possible on the web and save themselves some money.

So what's their motive?

If you can pay your tax or request repairs to your council flat through a web page then they don’t have to have people sitting in offices or answering the telephone.

So they are really keen on encouraging everyone to get connected, either at home or through one of their internet centres.

Of course, lots of people who have access to the net at work may not feel like splashing out on buying a PC for home.

But a major problem could well be that the net is being advertised wrongly, and to the wrong people.

When BT spent millions on pushing their broadband service they had pigs on motorbikes to show how fast it was.

But all the evidence - including a report last year from researchers at the Work Foundation - shows that the net is more important for other things.

Things like helping with homework, looking up medical information and helping people stay in touch with distant relatives.

The advertisers seem to be trying to sell the service to dads and kids instead of recognising that mums are going to find it a lot more useful.

Maybe we’d see more people getting online if someone explained this to them and they changed the ads.

Is the push for a broadband a mess? Have your say!

CD sales are plummeting, according to the latest figures from the music industry.

After bucking the global trend last year, sales in the UK were down by four per cent and the record companies are squealing that it’s all the Internet’s fault.

There is definitely a real problem with the large-scale copying of CDs and DVDs - those dodgy discs you buy at the market for a fiver are almost certainly made by pirates.

But for the music industry to blame people who download tracks over the internet is just foolish.

If you’ve just got online then one of the first things you’re going to do is search for all these MP3 files you’ve heard about.

You may decide not to buy the latest Robbie Williams CD if you can get the two good tracks from KaZaA or one of the other file swapping services.

But what little research there is shows that keen downloaders are also the people who buy most CDs.

The real reason for poor sales may just be that the music on offer is just not worth listening to.

Most of us old enough to have vinyl record collections have already replaced them with CDs.

Is piracy the problem?
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