Broadband has overtaken narrowband or dial-up internet subscriptions for the first time, according to new figures from the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg). Laura Slatteryreports.

At the end of March there were 602,000 broadband subscribers in the Republic, representing 58 per cent of the 1,045,700 internet subscriptions, ComReg's quarterly report shows. Some 450,000 of these are residential users, meaning that 30 per cent of all households now have broadband, ComReg said.

The figures were welcomed by Labour Party spokesman on communications Tommy Broughan, but he said the OECD figures highlighted in the ComReg report showed that the Republic was still near the bottom of the international table. The report stated: "At the end of March, 19,300 local loops were unbundled, a marginal decline on the previous quarter."

Local loop unbundling is one means by which operators other than Eircom can provide digital subscriber line (DSL) broadband over the network of copper telephone lines and it is seen as important to promoting competition. However, although alternative operators have 34 per cent of the DSL broadband market, only 5 per cent is provided by unbundled local loops.

ComReg also published average minutes of use for the mobile phone market for the first time. Mobile users spent an average of three hours and 43 minutes every month on their phones, it said.