The Office for National Statistics has released new figures for Internet access adopted by UK households and individuals.
The report shows that in 2013, 36 million adults (73%) in Great Britain accessed the internet every day, 20 million more than in 2006, when directly comparable records began.
72% of all adults bought goods or services online, up from 53% in 2008. In Great Britain, 21 million households (83%) had Internet access in 2013.
Simon Pamplin, director systems engineering at Brocade, said: "This upward trend in internet adoption needs to spark further discussion around how traffic can smoothly run across the internet uninterrupted. It is the frequency of use and addition of multiple devices connecting to the internet that will drive up the frequency of internet outages.
"We live in an ‘always on’ world and soon everything will be connected. Your house, your car, your fridge – the list of connected devices is endless. This is putting more and more pressure on the underlying infrastructure that supports the ISPs who provide Internet access.
"The signalling on the Internet was designed like the M1, where traffic runs north to south and accidents cause mass delays as traffic is halted and rerouted. A new approach where all roads are intertwined and the traffic interchange resembles that of a ‘Spaghetti Junction’, will help ISPs side step traffic collisions. This more intelligent way of automatically routing traffic around any point of failure is the only way to avoid an escalation in internet outages."
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