By Sylvia Carr, 10 June 2004 15:15
NEWS A slew of new research on broadband shows use of the technology is growing rapidly in the UK, albeit not fast enough - or fairly enough - for some.
The number of DSL subscribers alone has risen by 25 per cent to 2.72 million in the first quarter of 2004, putting penetration at 6.5 per cent of phone lines, according to analyst firm Point Topic.
Those numbers place the UK 10th in the world for total number of DSL subscribers, behind fellow EU members Germany, France and Italy, which rank fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively.
The UK's 6.6 per cent overall broadband penetration also lags the EU average of 7.5 per cent, says Pyramid Research.
A report from regulator Ofcom earlier this week counted 4 million UK broadband users - both DSL and cable - and 40,000 new connections each week at the end of April 2004. That places the UK third overall in Europe for existing connections, behind Germany and France.
However, the UK has a long way to go before reaching the government's goal of becoming the most competitive and extensive broadband market of all the G7 nations by 2005, according to the non-profit Access to Broadband Campaign.
The campaign says a better way to evaluate broadband success is by looking at what people are using it for. Once they're using it for communications via video and audio - not just email and web surfing - the technology will fulfil its potential.
Still, Pyramid is bullish on broadband's future in the UK and anticipates 19 per cent penetration by 2008. It also bets DSL will win out as the preferred technology and predicts the UK will have twice as many DSL as cable connections by that year.
The growth will be achieved through growing availability, lower prices and competition between DSL and cable providers, says Pyramid, though a number of competitive issues still need to be resolved.
One recent entrant to the UK broadband market, Telefonica UK, is ready to play along with continuing Ofcom regulation that could create even more growth and competition.
James Waterworth from Telefonica UK today said in a statement: "We welcome Ofcom's ongoing efforts to create a fairer and truly competitive marketplace... There is still much to be done on the regulatory side and Telefonica UK will be actively engaging with Ofcom to achieve an open broadband market in the weeks and months to come."
Comments
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1. Tim Little
Good article on broadband. Agree totally with the comment about measuring the use that broadband is being put to - not just connections. I still think that contention ratios need addressing.
Broadband and VPN is radically changing the way I work and for the better.
2. anonymous
Broadband is not fast enough as the contention level increases.
When BT first set trigger levels, I had to wait a year to get my broadband installed. It ran quite fast for the first couple of months - but now I'm lucky if I get any where near 40kps and sometimes have problems connecting. I complained to BT and they said it's the number of users on-line... this isn't good enough. If we want to be a "real" broadband connected country then we have got to up the speed to at least 2mps if not 10mps(real speed) for each individual line. Other countries can manage this - so we should too.
3. Adrian Lee
"Once they're using it for communications via video and audio - not just email and web surfing - the technology will fulfil its potential."
But the thing is, many people want broadband to do things faster, they want to surf faster, send emails faster. They don't necessarily want higher bandwidth content. That isn't 'faster', that just means you sit there waiting like you did with dial-up, just you're getting a bit more for it.
I recommend people don't start designing web sites with broadband in mind for that exact reason. When I'm surfing round for information, I want to be able to do that more quickly than I used to with dial up. Not have to wait the same length of time so that the site can load even more flashy things on the page.
Though all that is not to say that higher bandwidth use/content does not have its place. Yes its nice to be able to download larger amounts of data, but video conferencing and other high bandwidth usage isn't the only reason people want it.
The previous anonymous poster is right about contention ratio's, not had a problem in the 18 months I've had ADSL at home on a 50:1 ratio, but it will be an issue. You can already get 2mbps connections and at lower contention ratios though. At my work place we have 2meg line, 20:1 contention ratio, along with some antivirus/spam service and a firewall service for about £80 (ex vat) a month. Working very nicely and much more viable than the £250/month it costs for a lesser satellite service.
4. anonymous
I have been wary of all the hype surrounding broadband. Some of it from Siicon.com. Let us be quite blunt about it. Broadband is at best rather a 'flaky' technology. Should one have it installed. Use it for a couple of years, then for no fault of one's own the BT line / noise level deteriorates, if one complains there is a distinct possiblity, almost certainty they BT will terminate broadband provision on that line. Irrespective of the the pleadings of the user to have the line restored / repaired to be able to have broadband. Apparently no appeal procedure, I am given to understand that is it. I have incidentally recently migrated from BT Openworld / Yahoo to another ISP & during the migration period was the recipient of a most unpleasant & threatening e-mail. For which I subsequently received an apology.