UK superfast take-up accelerates
November 19, 2013
According to BT Group, net FTTx additions for external providers increased by more than 300 per cent during in the three months to end September 2013.
“Superfast broadband is where the UK is heading and the consumers agree. Virgin Media, BT, Sky and TalkTalk amongst others all show strong results for their higher bandwidth tariffs while those that don’t offer over 25 megabits per second are struggling,” says Oliver Johnson, Chief Executive at Point Topic.
This is against the backdrop of poor quarterly growth for the UK broadband sector as a whole, with net additions a mere 200,800 – the lowest third quarter figure since Point Topic began tracking the sector back in 2006.
Smaller ISPs are finding it difficult. As they try to compete with large companies with large marketing budgets their cutting edge has been dulled further by the lack of full unbundling for fibre services.
“Overall it’s good news for the consumer and for the larger ISPs. More bandwidth to more people is a positive outcome. It would be appropriate to watch the competitive landscape carefully and regulation may be needed soon to ensure a healthy market in the future,” concludes Johnson.