UK increases its appetite for broadband

 

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By Maggie Holland

Posted on 2 Apr 2007 at 18:27

If figures released today by Ofcom are any indication of the nation's appetite for broadband, Britain is still hungry for high-speed connectivity.

More than 13 million UK homes and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are now broadband-enabled, compared with 9.9 million a year ago and an even smaller tally of 330,000 back in 2001, according to the regulator's Digital Progress Report.

Since its mass market birth around seven years ago, users' appetite for broadband has increased massively.

In the last year alone, the UK has witnessed an 11 per cent increase in the number of adults with broadband connections, resulting in more than half of the country's adult population now being connected.

However, those not currently connected aren't immune to the appeal of broadband. Just under a quarter (23 per cent) of those without a Net connection plan to connect in the next 12 months, with 76 per cent of them vowing to bypass dial-up and head straight for broadband, according to Ofcom's research.

The main reasons behind the rapid increase in take up in recent years is down to falling prices - with speeds of up to 2 Mbit/s available for £15 a month last year compared with a higher price tag of £50 in 2003 - in addition to bundled offerings from service providers.

'With over half of UK adults now using broadband at home, we have reached a very significant milestone in the development of broadband Britain,' said Ofcom's chief executive Ed Richards.

'Consumers are responding positively to the competition and innovation that the UK market now offers.'

The watchdog's report also found that users are becoming increasingly fond of making calls using the Net, with one in 10 saying they are making use of this communications medium on a regular basis.

Furthermore, Ofcom's findings showed that 21 per cent of UK adults own a Wi-Fi-enabled laptop, with more than one third of them making use of public hotspots to connect to the web.

And, according to Ofcom's report, one in three adults now own a Web-enabled mobile phone, which many of them have used to get online.