About 15.2 million, or 61 percent, of all UK households had Internet access as of May 2007, a four percent increase since last year, according to the 2007 Omnibus Survey from the UK Office of National Statistics.

"The UK government has managed to successfully create a regulatory environment that has fostered competition in the sector. Separating the wholesale and retail arms of British Telecom has given smaller ISPs and access providers an opportunity to compete with their bigger rivals," eMarketer senior analyst Ben Macklin is quoted as saying in an eMarketer article.

In terms of broadband, the UK used to be the laggard – its penetration was way behind many of its Western European and international counterparts earlier this decade. The UK now leads Europe's five largest markets in broadband uptake, both in the number of broadband households and penetration.

In 2007, over half (51 percent) of UK households had broadband access, growing from 40 percent last year. More than eight in 10 UK households with Internet now have broadband connections.

As of March this year, UK household broadband penetration was 47.1 percent. eMarketer also projected that the UK's broadband penetration would increase to nearly 76.8 percent by 2011.