The UK Broadband Industry scaled new heights in 2006
The UK broadband industry has grown in leaps and bounds in the past few years, according to the research report released by Ofcom, in April, 2007. The report provides an in-depth study of the current developments in UK broadband industry and the statistical figures of various consumer uses. The report cites the fierce competition among the broadband providers, rising consumer take-up and the implementation of new regulatory policies as the main contributors to the growth of UK broadband industry during the last few years.
The striking feature of this growth story is the cheap range of broadband prices offered by the broadband providers in the UK. Broadband prices have slashed so much so that they are 3 or 4 times cheaper when compared with the prices three years ago. There are many cheap broadband providers in the UK that you can refer before choosing the right one.
There is also a growing number of broadband providers who offer free broadband connections to customers who utilize other services they provide.
According to the report, the number of broadband connections in home and SME has crossed 13 million mark by the end of year 2006, a surge of 31 percent from the previous year. Half of the UK adult population can now access broadband from home while this figure was 11 percent less at the end of 2005. Many SMEs are switching over to broadband connections from dialup as less than one-tenths of total SMEs in UK now use dialup connections.
Headline connection speeds have also improved considerably during the last year. The average connection speed is upgraded from 1.6 Mbit/s to 3.8 Mbit/s while the maximum speed available to broadband users at home can reach up to 24 Mbit/s. Nearly one-third of broadband connections in home and SME can access broadband at a headline speed over 2 Mbit/s.
About two-thirds of the UK broadband users go online daily while 30 percent of them access broadband at least once a week. On average, broadband users go online 9 hours a week, twice the time spent by narrowband users.
About 50 percent of broadband subscribers used online bank transactions while majority of them (70 %) have used online shopping at least once during last year.
About half of the home users access online video sites like Google, Metacafe or myspace.com. Around one-fourths of total broadband users access online videos once a week.
Despite the falling broadband prices, the revenue from broadband services is on rise. The revenue figure at the end of year 2006 has reached £1.8 billion, up by 18 percent over the year.
