Number of fast broadband subscribers doubled in Q3 2008

29th November 2008

 

According to an Internet connectivity report published by the Office of National Statistics, the number of subscribers to broadband packages with an advertised download speed of over 8 Mbps doubled in the third quarter of this year from 4.8% to 9.8% of all broadband connections:

 

 

The report also says that 94.1% of all Internet users now connect via broadband, which is up from 92.8% at the end of June. The following graph shows the trend of broadband take-up and the decline of dial-up:

 

 

The next step-change in broadband speeds

In the seven years since broadband took off, ADSL connection speeds have increased from the initial 512 kbps through 1 or 2 Mbps, then to the currently most common "up to 8 Mbps" speed, and there is a small percentage of people on ADSL2+ connections, which offers speeds of "up to 24 Mbps". So with the number of advertised connection speeds of over 8 Mbps doubling in the last quarter of 2008, it looks like we could be seeing the start of the next step-change in broadband speeds.

Virgin's forthcoming 50 Mbps broadband package will likely lead to a lot of consumer interest and more people moving to the faster than 8 Mbps speeds, but a more important factor is BT's roll-out of its new 21CN network, because once a BT telephone exchange has been switched over to 21CN then the exchange automatically supports ADSL2+ as well.

At the time of writing, only 145 of BT's telephone exhanges have been switched over to 21CN, but BT is aiming for 55% of the population to be on 21CN-enabled exchanges by May next year, so we could see more ISPs starting to offer ADSL2+ packages next year, possibly including BT itself, and this should lead to the price of ADSL2+ coming down. 

 

 

 

 

 


 

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