Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are making the most of an unprecedented boom in home internet use to boost their online presence.

Research from Oftel showed 63 per cent of SMEs were now online, up from 55 per cent last May. It also said two in three SMEs were using mobile phones, a figure that has been steadily increasing for the past six months.

The announcement came as figures from research specialist Nielsen NetRatings showed UK home internet usage had jumped 22 per cent between December and January to more than 17 million.

Oftel's research, which was carried out last November, also revealed 78 per cent of small businesses used dial-up access to connect to the internet compared to 37 per cent of medium businesses.

The figures showed a slow take-up for broadband access, with only five per cent of SMEs connected to the internet using DSL (digital subscriber lines) or cable modems. One in three SMEs used unmetered internet access and 36 per cent of all SMEs used more than one fixed telecoms supplier.

Peter Waller, director of operations at Oftel, said: "Our research shows the take up of telecoms services by UK businesses continues to rise. Although small and medium-sized businesses' expenditure on telecoms services is relatively small, it is still important they are able to make well-informed purchasing decisions."

Mark South, director of Hove-based small business Drive South, has recently taken his driving instructor business online.

He said: "Things were a bit slow to start with but it's taken off and we've been getting business through the site. The internet is still the way forward."

He said the company's site would become more interactive, eventually including an online driving-theory examination.

The growth in the number of UK businesses going online has been partly spurred by the largest month-on-month rise in the number of at-home surfers.

David Day, director of analytics for Nielsen NetRatings, said: "This is an outstanding performance. The key factors are Christmas PC buyers getting online, the continuing fall in prices and availability of fixed-rate connections and heavy advertising from AOL and other major players."

The major web portals have been the big winners with MSN, Yahoo!, AOL Time Warner and Wanadoo all growing their audience by about 30 per cent.

Mr Day said: "This ties in with the theory that the increase is down to first-time users, as these portals are mostly new surfers' first point of call."

Meanwhile, shopping sites suffered a loss of audience, with the number of visitors to argos.co.uk falling by 15 per cent and the audience for johnlewis.co.uk dropping 31 per cent. The big winners were travel sites, confirming the decline in the online travel sector following September 11 was a short-term one.

Expedia grew by 69 per cent, adding more than 500,000 visitors to become the UK's leader in online travel and easyjet.co.uk saw its visitor numbers top 750,000.

The latest statistics should please the Government, which launched its UK Online campaign last year to help give everyone in the UK access to the internet by 2005. The campaign, which is supported by celebrities Honor Blackman, Alan Hansen and Ellen MacArthur, also aims to make all public services available electronically by 2005.

www.oftel.org.uk
www.nielsen-netratings.com
www.letsallgeton.gov.uk
www.drivesouth.co.uk