The UK has overtaken France as the largest broadband country in Europe, with the latest estimates from Point Topic suggesting that the UK will have 9.8 million broadband lines by New Year’s Day 2006 compared to France with 9.7 million.
The expected strong performance comes on the backend of a healthy third quarter for DSL uptake in 2005, with Point Topic revealing that during the first nine months of 2005 the UK added nearly 2.8 million broadband lines, while France added 2.2 million (see
Global Broadband Lines Up By 9% In Q3 2005).
Looking towards 2006, Point Topic claims that major changes in the UK environment should help to drive growth forward in 2006.
Changes include the development of processes enabling bulk migration of existing DSL customers to “unbundled” telephone lines, as well as the creation of BT’s Openreach programme, offering broadband access to all service providers on equal terms.
Until now, the UK has lagged behind other countries in the unbundling of telephone lines, however, due to advances in technology, Point Topic predict large internet service providers (ISPs) to start moving customers onto their unbundled equipment on a massive scale.
According to Point Topic, if the big UK ISPs approach the task “with the same aggressive commitment as the French”, it is estimated that the target of one million LLU lines could be achieved as soon as Q3 2006.
BT’s Openreach scheme is also forecast to open up and stimulate broadband take-up and growth, with the service intended to provide access infrastructure on the same terms to all players, whether they are part of the BT group or competitors.
Another big change in the UK scene will be the merger of NTL and Telewest, resulting in raised market reach and efficiency and helping to further growth rates in cable network broadband.
The OFT recently gave the proposed merger the thumbs up, clearing the way for the creation of a cross-platform media provider, with 2.5 million broadband customers, 4.3 million fixed-line telephone accounts (see OFT Approves Media Mergers).
The UK’s strong performance in broadband penetration is confirmed by a earlier report from US analyst eMarketer, claiming that currently 56.7% of the UK population is online, rising to 62.5% over the next three years (see UK To Lead Europe In Broadband Uptake).
According to estimates from Datamonitor, by the end of 2005, almost eight million households in the UK had a broadband connection (see Europe Sees Surge In Broadband Adoption).
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