After falling behind in the early stages, the UK is gaining ground on other European countries in terms of broadband uptake. There will be one million subscribers nationwide within the next fortnight, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
“We have waited a long time to see the benefits of telecoms infrastructure competition, and we were slow to make progress with broadband,” said e-commerce minister Stephen Timms at the Oxford Internet Institure. “Within a fortnight we expect to celebrate one million connections.”
The target will have been reached two months ahead of schedule and although less than 10% of UK users currently access the internet via a high speed connection (see UK Lags Behind Europe In Broadband Uptake), broadband growth now exceeds that of France, Germany and Italy. Of the G8 countries, Japan is experiencing the fastest growth, followed by Canada, the US and the UK.
“That’s a big change from a year ago, and there’s no reason why the UK shouldn’t grow further with lower costs, more advertising and greater variety of broadband products now on offer,” said OECD communications analyst Sam Paltridge.
