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Four million homes to have next-gen broadband by 2013
Monday 29th December 2008, by Daniel King
Around four million homes and small businesses in the UK could have super-fast fibre optic broadband connections by 2013, it has been claimed.
According to a Point Topic report, there will be 22 million broadband internet connections in the next five years.
Of these, it is estimated that around 20 per cent will be fibre optic, while the proportion of people using DSL will fall from 78 per cent to 57 per cent.
Point Topic predicted that the existing cable network operated by Virgin Media will continue to perform well and be a popular choice in the market.
It claims the internet service provider (ISP) will hold onto its 23 per cent market share because it offers the fastest download speeds in the UK.
Tim Johnson, the chief analyst at Point Topic, said that now is probably the first time it is possible to make a realistic forecast for the fibre optic future of the UK.
He noted that the estimates from the firm are based on some "real plans and activity".
While Virgin Media has already rolled out its new 50Mbps package, BT's plan to deliver fibre optic connections with speeds of up to 100Mbps by 2010 could still take a long time to become operational, Mr Johnson claimed.
"It'll probably take a bit longer than that but there are a lot of other players coming into the market too. So we estimate there will be over 4.4 million fibre lines by the end of 2013," he commented.
The broadband expert added that there is some controversy over why people want high-speed connection.
"People will be able to mix video telephony, television, audio, online games and virtual worlds, all high quality and high resolution," he said.
Virgin Media's 50Mbps broadband connection was rolled out across the UK on December 15th.
Categories: Broadband, Broadband Products, Virgin Media
