BT has further extended its lead over the UK broadband market, by becoming the first UK ISP to supply 4 million customers with broadband services. BT lost its position at the head of the Broadband league to Virgin Media early this year – the lead was regained after BT set about assimilating PlusNetand then the Brightview group.
This rapid customer growth comes despite BT having its home turf business under pressure from low-cost phone and broadband providers such as Tiscali and TalkTalk. The telco has also had the time to launch BT Vision, a hybrid terrestrial/pay TV platform which allows BT to compete with Virgin and Sky, who both have set up shop in the residential voice market. Crucially, BT Vision has attracted a number of customers to its sports package, a market area which is considered to be Sky’s family jewels – as a BT Broadband connection is required to make use of this IPTV service, this is an example of customer retention at its shrewdest.
As Ian Livingston, the big cheese behind BT Retail said “…Broadband can provide so many more services than just internet surfing, and it has become central to many people’s lives and businesses.”
We couldn’t agree more, and live in hope that BT will capitalise on these gains made in the market place and make good on the rumours that they are planning to invest into a full FttH (Fibre to the Home) network; an inside source at BT revealed that the company have been considering investing in a Fibre to the Kerb network, where a connection will be supplied from the roadside to 3 metres into the household – further investment would be required to complete the virtual ‘last mile’ into the home.
With Virgin currently providing super fast 20Mbps connections, with a view to upgrading in the future, we’re looking forwards to seeing how the future of broadband in the UK takes shape.
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Steve Smith said on 05 Sep 2007 at 8:42 am #
BT have provided more connections and invested more in setting up phonelines than anyone else.
These cheaper providers are leeching off of a network into which they invetsed nothing apart from what the pay into LLU.
BT deserve their position in the broadband league.
Chris Browne said on 11 Sep 2007 at 8:24 am #
BT trolls posting on here again…
Steve, this will all change once the rest of them fully invests in the LLU program. We’ll see if BT can retain their market share once the competition REALLY begins.