Japan Dial-Up Subscribers Top 17M In March

The number of dial-up Internet subscribers as of March of this year was 17.25 million, according to recent ministry statistics. This compares to 10.59 million dial-up users at the end of December 1999, representing a 6.66-subscriber increase. While dial-up continues to show impressive growth and is the dominant method of full Internet access, the report shows cable and digital subscriber line (DSL) Internet access increasing at a faster rate. A total of 784,000 people accessed the Internet via their cable TV provider at the end of March, compared to 216,000 a year earlier. The number of subscribers to the DSL services provided by NTT regional telecom operators at the end of April was 112,182, up from 16,194 at the end of January. Subscribers to limited wireless Internet services like NTT DoCoMo's I-mode, EZWeb and J-Sky totaled 36.94 million at the end of April, compared to 9.35 million a year earlier.