UK broadband connections hit 10 million

More than 70,000 new connections a week, says Ofcom

There are now more than 10 million broadband connections in the UK, according to figures released today by Ofcom.

The telecoms industry regulator says there were 70,000 new connections a week in the three months to December 2005.

Jyotie Choudrie, broadband researcher and senior lecturer for Swansea University’s school of business and economics, says this milestone is important but the UK still has some way to go in terms of penetration and use.

‘This milestone shows the Government is working towards its goal for complete broadband penetration. But we still have some rural areas that have yet to be reached,’ she said.

‘South Korea also passed this mark a couple of years ago and when it did, its market started to look at new ways to use connections like homeworking, which is where we are now.’

Ofcom’s Communications Market interim report provides an overview of developments within the telecoms, radio and television industries, including the latest data available for the second and third quarters of last year, from September 2004 to September 2005.

Retail telecom revenues rose six per cent during last year, totalling £37.2bn, due to a mobile market that grew by 16 per cent to £13.6bn. But this was at the expense of domestic and business fixed-line revenue, which fell nine per cent to £10.3bn.

And mobile virtual network operators – that lease network capacity to offer retail mobile services – led the erosion into the market share of traditional operators, and now account for more than 5.5 million out of the 62.5 million mobile subscriptions in the UK.

The report also says digital radio audiences almost doubled to 10.5 per cent during August and September last year, from 5.9 per cent in the same period last year.

By the end of September 2005, 66 per cent (or 16.5 million) of households could have access to digital television.