2005, the year of Broadband |
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Published
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Thu, 14 Jul 2005 09:35
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UK telecom and media regulator, Ofcom has announced that more and more Britons are opting for the ultra-speedy broadband connections than the perennially slow dial-up connections to access the Internet. This statement is contained within the regulator’s Communications Market report, which was released on Wednesday.
Ofcom predicts that almost all UK houses will get broadband connections by the end of this year. Currently, there are 30 percent of households in the UK with these connections. Ofcom says that potentially 70,000 homes would get connected each week this year. The regulator attributes this phenomenal rise to increasing competition in the sector, which has naturally meant that the prices for these connections have dropped down to affordable levels.
In the beginning of 2003, the cost of 512 kilobits per second connection was 27 pounds ($47.82) per month as compared to the current 1MB connection, which costs just around 20 pounds per month.
And while the broadband connections grew at twice the rate in 2004, revenues registered only a 6.8 percent gain adding further evidence to Ofcom's report. Currently there are 8.1 million broadband connections in the UK; Ofcom expects that 99.6 percent of all households will be connected by the end of 2005.
In fact, it is not only broadband that has caught the attention of the country. Digital radio usage is also at an all-time high with 1.5 million DAB digital radios being owned in 2005. This number has risen sharply from a measly 250,000 in 2003. It is estimated that UK households are spending almost £1,000 per year on digital technology.
"This report shows that UK households are now accelerating into the digital age. In parallel, industries formed over decades are being reshaped by digital broadcasting and broadband with every month that passes," Ed Richards, the Ofcom boss said.
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