Broadband Stimulates UK Internet Market

The latest monthly update to the survey of ISPs revealed that total subscriptions increased by 0.4% in the space of a month and the index of internet connectivity was up to 120.6. This was put down to a fall in the price of broadband technology which has led to a surge in the number of high-speed internet subscribers.

Dial-up connections increased by just 1.6% year on year, with a decrease of 0.4% from October to November. Permanent connections still account for less than one in ten of all subscriptions but they increased by 9.7% during the month and by a startling 272% over the year. According to Oftel, the UK broadband market is growing at a faster rate than those in the US, France and Germany (see UK Gaining Ground In Broadband Arena).

Access Plans The percentage of subscriptions using free access remained steady at 26% in November while those paying a fixed rate for unmetered access fell by one percentage point to 37%. Some 18% of subscribers rely on billed access while mixed plan, ‘always on’ subscriptions and other schemes make up the remaining 19%.