UK Consumers Pay Less For Broadband
Fierce competition in the market for high-speed internet access means that UK consumers pay some of the lowest prices in Europe for residential broadband services, according to figures from communications regulator, Oftel.
The latest international benchmarking survey shows that continued rivalry between service and network providers, such as BT, Freeserve, AOL and Telewest, has caused prices for residential broadband services to drop by 6% in the last six months.
UK residential consumers pay less for their broadband services than people in France, Germany and the US, with only Sweden offering a slightly cheaper service than in the UK. Lower prices are helping to drive uptake and the number of UK broadband internet homes recently reached two million, with new connections running at 35,000 every week (see UK Broadband Reaches Two Million Homes).
Peter Waller, Oftel’s deputy director general of Telecommunications, said: “Service providers in the UK are offering competitive broadband to consumers through a choice of platforms including a number of DSL and cable providers.”
The market for high-speed internet services received a boost last year with BT’s decision to drop the wholesale price of broadband lines to below £15 a month. This meant that service providers could start offering discounted high speed packages for less than £30.
BT also launched a multimillion pound integrated advertising campaign to drive uptake of its broadband service (see BT To Spend £1m A Day Promoting Broadband), prompting both Freeserve and AOL to step up their marketing activity.
Broadband uptake looks set to continue rising at a rapid rate and Datamonitor predicts that over 41 million European households will be accessing the internet via high-speed connections by 2006 (see Last Year’s Broadband Boom Kick-Starts Uptake).
Oftel: 020 7634 8761 www.oftel.gov.uk
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