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For the prior year - 2004 - the growth was clocked at 20 per cent. But despite the rush of China and India to technology - China's Net adoption grew 8 per cent - the negligible change in North America and Canada meant overall growth was slowed.

Ipsos Insight also says that 2006 is unlikely to be any different from the online intentions it has observed.

The star performers for 2005 was France, with a 12 per cent year on year rise in Internet adoption. But it is Japan that remains the Net leader. Some 89 per cent of respondents had been online in the past 30 days, clocking an average of nearly 14 hours a week.

For the UK the figures are somewhat uncomfortable. Little more than half the respondents had been online in the past 30 days putting it only just ahead of China, Mexico, Brazil, Russia and India in that order and at the bottom of all the countries where Internet adoption is already well established.

In terms of time spent online, Net Brits fared even worse. An average of 8.6 hours a week leaves us trailing in the wake of all but Russia and India.

And while only half the Chinese respondents had been online in the past 30 days, they led the field when it came to time spent online each week, racking up nearly 18 hours.

Brian Cruikshank, Senior Vice President & Managing Director of the company's Technology & Communications practice, said: 'We think the results in 2005 really prove that measuring growth of the Internet in the coming years will be less about user volume, and more about consumers' reliance on this medium as a way of life - whether it is checking RSS feeds, blogging or picking up a podcast of yesterday's sitcom, consumers continue to expand and apply new depth of Internet use that we haven't seen before.'

In Europe this looks to be particularly relevant, as France and the UK look poised to be the early adopters of VoIP communications, becoming increasingly reliant on the Internet not just for surfing, but also for communications and other services.

The anomaly in the rankings, however, was India. Acting as the rear guard for both Net adoption and time online, it doesn't seem to reflect the huge outsourcing of technology there.

Adam Wright, Senior Research Manager at Ipsos, agreed: 'Yes - definitely seem to get mixed signals here. Our study surveys those in urban centres of India, and while I can't pinpoint exactly what is the largest contributing factor retarding growth in this market, this year's data did fall in line with the previous year's data - both in Past 30 day usage and intention to go online among those who haven't yet.'

Article by Matt Whipp, PC PRO magazine © Dennis Publishing Limited licensed by Felden