Fiber optic broadband usage doubles

A total of 166,300 households used the internet in 2015, accounting for 86.3 percent of total households, up by 2 percentage points year-on-year, according to information released by the Statistics and Census Service. Of these, households using mobile broadband to access the internet increased by 1.5 percent year-on-year to 141,400, while those using a fiber optic broadband connection doubled to 36,200.
Total internet penetration in 2015 amounted to 77.6 percent, up by 7.8 percentage points year-­on-year, and that figure was proportional to around 470,800 internet users aged three and above. As many as 94.3 percent of these users accessed the internet daily, up by 0.9 percentage points from 2014.
The penetration rate for those aged 15 to 24 continued to hold the lead at 96.1 percent, up slightly by 0.2 percentage points year-on-year.
As for the purpose of internet usage, 90.4 percent used the internet for communication and 76.8 percent for web entertainment, up by 3.5 and 1.2 percentage points respectively year-on-­year. Meanwhile, online shoppers increased by 7 percent to 62,300.
Median spending on online shopping was MOP1,000 in the fourth quarter of 2015, similar to that in the corresponding quarter of 2014. Median spending on travel services and electronic products stood at MOP5,000 and MOP1,125, up by 53.8 percent and 127.3 percent year-on-year.
Mobile phone users increased by 0.6 percent year-on-year to 559,500, with the mobile phone penetration rate standing at 92.2 percent, similar to that in 2014. Additionally, the proportion of the population using mobile phones to access the internet rose 11.8 percentage points year-on-year to 91.3 percent.
Owing to the greater functionality available on mobile phones and other devices, the proportion of households having computer equipment (152,200) decreased by 2.1 percentage points year-on-year to 79 percent. The computer penetration rate for those aged 3 and above increased by 0.5 percentage points year-on-year to 61.1 percent. DB