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Broadband growth 'continues to defy recession'
Tuesday 29th September 2009, by Daniel King
The broadband sector has continued to perform well despite fears about the current state of the UK economy, a report published this week has suggested.
In a survey delivered by Gartner on Monday (September 28th) it was advised that regardless of a widely publicised global recession, the appetite for high-speed internet services had remained strong.
According to the study, not only has the sector continued to carry on "robustly", but new predictions suggest the number of fixed-line connections serving homes across the UK could reach 422 million by the end of the year.
This figure is compared to the 382 million households in Britain that were enjoying broadband services in this way by the end of 2008 and, according to Gartner, the number could be as high as 580 million in the next four years.
Amanda Sabia, principal research analyst at the firm, said more people were looking to upgrade their old dial-up connections to a faster, more reliable option and this was just one thing that was driving the market.
"Multiple motivations are conspiring to keep broadband growth strong," she added, noting more affordable subscriptions and "aging populations requiring broadband connectivity" are just some of these.
"Consumers may be watching their household expenditure, but dropping their broadband connections is not on the top of their agendas," Ms Sabia concluded.
Recent figures from the Office for National Statistics show that online retail is also playing a big role in web popularity - with sales in August up by 2.1 per cent year on year.
