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UK broadband connections reach 16.6m
Thursday 11th December 2008, by Daniel King
The total broadband connections in the UK have reached 16.6 million, according to recent figures.
Ofcom's latest quarterly report revealed that broadband connections to the internet increased from 14.38 million in the second quarter of 2007 to 16.6 million in the same period this year.
The Telecommunications Market Data Tables showed that BT Retail DSL connections stayed relatively unchanged with a 26.5 per cent market share.
However, the number of connections rose from 3.716 million to 4.396 million in the year leading up to June 2008.
The number of people with other DSL connections declined from more than five million to 3.846 million.
Virgin Media's cable services increased in popularity, with the company adding almost half a million subscribers.
Local loop unbundled (LLU) DSL packages saw a significant increase in customers from 2.459 million to 4.797 million.
This equates to an increase of 2.338 million unbundled broadband connections being subscribed to by UK residents.
BT-based DSL broadband internet service providers (ISPs) have suffered due to the increased popularity of subscriptions to BT and Virgin Media's cheaper unbundled LLU DSL services.
With the low prices available from BT and Virgin Media, smaller ISPs are struggling to compete as more broadband customers switch to the less expensive options.
The fast speeds available to Virgin Media customers could be another attraction for customers looking to switch providers.
Virgin Media recently topped a price comparison site's rankings for fastest downstream speeds.
Those requiring a super-fast broadband connection will soon be able to sign up to the ISP's 50Mbps service.
Categories: Broadband, BT, Virgin Media
