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UK gains 300,000 new broadband lines

The UK may have taken its knocks this week around the speed of our broadband but a new survey has shown a large increase in available infrastructure.

By Jennifer Scott, 11 Mar 2010 at 11:15

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More than 300,000 extra broadband lines were added in the UK in the fourth quarter of 2009, according to new research.

Point Topic has released a study showing the industry added a total of 308,000 lines during the quarter – the largest amount in over a year – and this has led to a forecast-breaking 18,356,000 overall lines across the UK.

Although there were 66,000 lines more than expected, growth over the entire year was not as strong.

“As expected in a mature market, year-on-year growth slowed with providers adding just 963,000 lines over the course of 2009, compared to 1,664,000 in 2008, and 2,612,000 in 2007,” claimed the report.

Households signing up to the technology grew in the fourth quarter by 0.9 per cent, which the firm claimed was the best rise since the third quarter of 2008.

But when the falling number of dial-up connections was included into the figures, Point Topic said that it was equivalent to only a 0.6 per cent rise in overall penetration - standing at 62.1 per cent.

The report concluded that the figures showed there was “some way to go if the UK is to reach high levels of take-up.”

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2 comments

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Villages left-out

It would be nice for BT to consider the outlying areas that are still on 576kb/s. I pay the same as the areas nearer the exchange that are on 1mb/s, fibre to our distribution box would help, then last 1/4 mile on copper would be an improvement. Steve

By HeliEye on Friday Mar 12

Rural areas...

Indeed, a lot of the telecoms companies are focusing on city speeds and built up areas. Organisations such as the Rural Coallition are trying to bring more focus to areas such as yours (read our article here http://www.itpro.co.uk/616156/coalition-calls-for-decent-rural-broadband) and a lot of local councils are actually starting to take on broadband infrastrucure themselves as they feel left out of the big companies' plans. It is a testing time however, especially with various pledges from Government and opposition parties for what they would do after the general election to fuel broadband rollout. Lets hope some of it actually happens.

By Ip_jennifer_scot on Friday Mar 12