Over 78 million Brazilians have Internet access

More than 78 million Brazilians have access to the Internet, according to third-quarter statistics provided Monday by the private consulting firm Ibope.

The figure is up 6.5 percent from the total for the same period last year.

The total number of Brazil's 190 million people with access to the web at home, at work, in schools and cybercafes reached 73.9 million at the end of 2010.

Of those with access to the Internet from home or from work, 46.7 million were active users in October, up 0.8 percent from September and up 11.9 percent from October last year.

Meanwhile, online shopping sites registered 32.3 million customers in October, up 4.5 percent from September.