Broadband To Be In Five Million Homes By Year-End
Almost 5 million UK homes are expected to have high-speed broadband internet access by the end of this year, according to the latest study from Continental Research.
The Spring 2004 Internet Report shows that the promotion of broadband services by telecoms companies is paying off, with take-up increasing from just 750,000 two years ago to the current figure of 3.6 million.
The number of people with a high-speed internet connection is expected to rise further with nearly one in ten dial-up users expressing an interest in upgrading within the next twelve months. An additional 6% of respondents said they would almost certainly switch to broadband before the end of the year.
Colin Shaddick, director at Continental Research, said: “With 12.6 million homes now connected to the internet there is a still a huge opportunity available for telecoms companies to persuade people to up-grade onto faster connections.”
The news will be welcomed by internet service providers such as BT and Yahoo!, which recently launched the second phase of a £10 million advertising campaign to promote their new co-branded BT Yahoo! internet service (see BT And Yahoo! Extend Service To Narrowband Users).
AOL also recently expanded its range of high-speed internet services with the launch of a new faster DSL broadband. Following this, Freeserve reduced the price of its 512k high-speed service with the backing of an extensive press, online and radio advertising campaign (see AOL Launches New High-Speed Broadband Service).
Shaddick added: “It can be estimated that of the nine million homes currently connected to the internet via a regular telephone line that just over 1.2 million homes are likely to up-grade to a faster connection in the next six to twelve months. Therefore in the next six to 12 months the number of UK homes with broadband should reach 4.8 million, indicating demand is still high.”
The research also shows that nearly one in three UK adults have become online savvy and are using the internet to carry out transactions such as buying airline tickets, banking and downloading music.
Shaddick said: “Differences do occur amongst the demographic groups transacting in different sectors online. Most activities have a male bias, apart from supermarket shopping and instant messaging, where women lead the way.”
Last week BT Group announced its intention to make high-speed broadband internet services available to ninety percent of the UK population by the summer, as part of its plan to achieve total coverage by 2005 (see BT Aims For Total UK Broadband Coverage By 2005).
Continental Research: 020 7490 5944 www.continentalresearch.co.uk
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