One in 10 users could not live without broadband, says study

One in 10 UK broadband users say they could not live without broadband, while one in five say they would last less than a day without it, according to a study by broadband, TV and mobile comparison site Cable.co.uk.

According to the study, 10% of respondents said they could live without broadband indefinitely, as opposed to 21% who said they could last a day or less without access. One in 20 said they could only last 30 minutes.

“Broadband is more than just a technology now. It’s the medium by which we run our informational, financial, and social lives. Even those who dismissed broadband as inessential a decade ago now are now researching holidays, shopping, maintaining personal relationships and more online,” said Cable.co.uk editor-in-chief Dan Howdle.

“Compare broadband with the birth and evolution of the telephone. Like the telephone, broadband is no longer some nascent fad, but something so deeply entwined with our personal and interpersonal lives that we can no longer distinguish the technology itself from the emotional content of our online social interactions. Which is why most of us substitute the notion of living without broadband for the notion of living without our friends, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters and parents. And that’s why it’s all but unthinkable.”