Japanese online population soaring

There were almost 20 million dial-up Internet users in Japan at the end of January, reports Newsbytes.

According to the Japanese Ministry of Telecommunications, there were 19.95 million dial-up users at the end of January, up from 10.59 million at the end of December 1999.

Growth in dial-up users slowed during 2001, as broadband services became increasingly popular. By the end of January, there were 1.33 million cable broadband subscribers and 1.79 million DSL subscribers, up from 784,000 and 70,000 respectively at the end of March 2001.

Wireless Internet access dominates the market in Japan, however. There were 49.44 million web-enabled phone subscribers at the end of January, up from 34.57 million at the end of March last year.

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