Broadband News

Broadband Britain

Thursday, 20 November 2008

By Garnet Roach garnet@consumerchoices.co.uk

Internet users in the UK spend an average of 14 hours a week online - more than every other country in Europe.

Of all the countries examined by Ofcom’s International Communications Market Report, internet use per user has risen the fastest in the UK over the last four years, at an average annual rate of 30 per cent.

And with 26 broadband connections per 100 people in the UK, Britain came third out of comparative countries, behind the Netherlands with 35 per cent and Sweden with 31 per cent.

The International Communications Market Report also found that the UK had more high definition TVs per capita than any other country in Europe.

Over all residential and small and medium enterprises broadband connections, UK broadband take-up totalled 60 per cent in 2007 - up by 10 percentage points on the previous year.

However, Ofcom also noted that the broadband market in the UK was slowing with growth in take-up slowing to 20 per cent in 2007 compared to 31 per cent the year before.

Mobile broadband on the other hand has seen a huge boost since the industry began targeting consumers as well as businesses and the UK currently has the highest HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) with 87 per cent, compared to around 70 per cent in most European countries.

Michael Phillips, BroadbandChoices.co.uk product director, said: “The cost of telecoms has dropped consistently in recent years, with consumers getting far more for their money than ever before.

“And although the broadband market is clearly slowing, the limited supply of completely new broadband customers is forcing providers to come up with ever more tempting offers to attract customers away from their rivals - which is great for consumers. However, these conditions will also push ISPs to try to tie consumers into ever longer contracts - such as the 24 month plans now available - in a bid to hold onto customers.”

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