Broadband Net Access Shows Strong UK Growth

The Government data show that whilst narrowband dial-up connections still dominate the market, their growth is now way below broadband and ADSL platforms. Standard dial-up connections increased by 12% year on year during April, with month on month growth significantly less at 0.1%.

Permanent connections, which include broadband and ADSL services, showed an impressive 428% year on year increase, with month on month growth standing at 16.3%. Overall internet access growth rose by 16.1% between April 2001 and April this year.

Strong broadband market in the UK The ONS says that dial-up connections continue to dominate the number of overall subscriptions, but the popularity of permanent connections is growing rapidly. Oftel estimates that the broadband market is now growing at a rate of 20,000 connections per week, with well over 600,000 connections already in place (see UK Now Has Half A Million Broadband Subscribers, Says Oftel).

Growth of this market is being boosted in the UK as a result of some of the cheapest access prices in Europe and the US, according to a separate Oftel report (see Cheap UK Broadband Internet Access Drives Uptake). It also has a more competitive market for DSL than either France or Germany, with cheaper wholesale prices than France and more competition from service providers, according to Oftel. In addition, there is more competition from cable operators in the UK than in France or Germany.

Broadband services takeup in France, Germany and the UK
	France	Germany	UK
Total DSL end users per 100 population	0.93	2.89	0.28
Cable modem subscribers	200,000	30,000	328,000
	(end 2001)	(end 2001)	(beginning May 2002)
Cable modem subscribers per 100 population	0.34	0.04	0.34
Total DSL+cable modem subscribers	750,650	2,400,000	528,000
Total DSL+cable modem subscribers per 100 population	1.27	2.92	0.89
Source: Oftel, June 2002

User forecasts Forecasts from eMarketer published last month predict that the UK will have 32.6 million internet users by 2004; this year there will be around 28.6 million. The UK is slightly behind Germany, which has the largest internet user base in Europe.

Internet Users Forecasts By Country
	Number Of Users (million)
	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Germany	24.0	30.0	36.7	40.7	42.5
UK	18.0	24.0	28.6	31.4	32.6
Italy	13.2	16.0	19.2	21.1	21.9
France	8.5	15.7	21.2	25.0	26.7
Source: eMarketer, May 2002