Superfast broadband lines hit 250,000 mark

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The take-up of superfast broadband in Britain has been given figures to back it up today by Point Topic.

The analyst firm claimed there would be 250,000 lines in use by the end of April, up from the confirmed 175,000 at the end of December.

The research defined superfast broadband as any connection over 25Mbps.

Although the figures are positive news for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) investing in the technology, the number does only equate to one per cent of homes in the UK.

However, Tim Johnson, chief analyst at Point Topic, claimed it was a stepping stone for superfast broadband to reach the numbers the first generation technology achieved over its first 10 years.

“We went on from [these numbers] to reach over 13 million broadband lines within five years,” he said. “Now we have over 19 million. It’s dangerous just to assume that history will repeat itself, but it’s still a good pointer to what will happen to superfast broadband in this decade.”

Virgin lines dominate BT

The estimated figures for March showed a clear market leader when it came to superfast broadband.

Virgin Media was shown to account for 146,000 lines last month, compared to BT’s 86,000. A further 4,000 lines were attributed to alternative networks.

Both companies are investing heavily into the speedy technology, with BT putting £2.5 million into its network and Virgin Media providing 100Mbps to over one million homes.

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