Greater demand for superfast as broadband subscribers grow
Superfast broadband services are now delivering 30 megabits of data per second, accounting for 20% of the consumer market in the UK – according to data from Point Topic’s services on global and UK statistics.
Total superfast subscriptions in the UK surpassed four million in April and since then, Virgin has upgraded its subscribers to higher bandwidths as part of its services – suggesting that superfast is gaining traction in the UK.
BT, too, is continuing to grow its next generation access and unbundling companies such as Sky and TalkTalk are shifting marketing strategies, according to Point Topic.
“Virgin Media has had the most bandwidth in the market for the longest of the major ISPs,” said Oliver Johnson, chief executive at Point Topic. “They have seen high end services, over 30 megabits a second, go from 10% of their subscriber base to almost 60% in the last two years.”
In terms of growth, there are a number of fixed networks that deliver superfast bandwidths through the UK and more are coming.
Despite issues will the Broadband Delivery UK project, there is currently more superfast coverage in the UK than there was initially predicted to be by this stage.
“With Virgin Media, KCom, Digital Region and other smaller players like Hyperoptic, there’s more infrastructure competition than ever before but it’s true that there will be significant sections of the country who will not have any chance of superfast for years yet,” said Johnson.
Users are paying more for bandwidth than they were a few years ago, however, Point Topic suggests that consumers may be saving elsewhere as the costs of entertainment packages or other communication costs are reduced or consolidated.
Johnson says that superfast will be the ‘engine’ for growth for the broadband future of Britain.
“The higher costs will deter some but overall there are enough drivers, the most important by far being television, for 30 megabits and above to be the norm in most households in the UK in the next two or three years.”