United Kingdom - Broadband - Fixed Network Overview, Statistics & Forecasts

Synopsis

The UK has an excellent broadband infrastructure, with DSL reaching 99.9% of the population and cable reaching more than half of all households. The market is fiercely competitive, largely as a result of regulatory measure to provide competitor access to British Telecom’s exchanges. In recent years broadband has been characterised by falling prices and a migration to higher speed services: 8Mb/s DSL is available in most areas of the country while Virgin Media is moving to a 50Mb/s service and BT has plans for a FttC/VDSL service covering 40% of the population. This report profiles the overall UK broadband market in 2009, covering broadband technologies and including the latest statistics, an update on recent commercial initiatives, an assessment of the September 2008 report on Next Generation Access, and forecasts to 2018.

Table of Contents

• 1. Synopsis
  
• 2. Overview
  
  • 2.1 Broadband statistics
    
  • 2.2 Emerging trends
    
  • 2.3 Government support
    
    • 2.3.1 National target set
      
    • 2.3.2 Digital Britain
      
    • 2.3.3 Wholesale broadband
      
    • 2.3.4 Next Generation Access
      
• 3. Cable modems
  
• 4. Forecasts – broadband subscribers to 2018
  
  • 4.1 Scenario 1 – higher broadband subscriber growth
    
  • 4.2 Scenario 2 – lower broadband subscriber growth
    
• 5. Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL)
  
  • 5.1 BT products
    
  • 5.2 Broadband consumer access
    
    • 5.2.1 Faster
      
    • 5.2.2 Cheaper
      
  • 5.3 Broadband providers
    
  • 5.4 ADSL2+
    
    • 5.4.1 Providers
      
  • 5.5 SDSL
    
  • 5.6 VDSL
    
• 6. Fibre-to-the-Home (FttH) networks
  
  • 6.1 Costing fibre
    
  • 6.2 Fibre access and Community Broadband Access networks
    
  • 6.3 BT
    
  • 6.4 Other developments
    
• 7. Broadband Powerline (BPL)
  
  • 7.1 Broadband over the Electricity Network (BoEN)
    
  • 7.2 Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE)
    
• 8. Notes on scenario forecasts
  
• 9. Related reports
  

• Table 1 – Broadband retail revenue – 2001 - 2007
• Table 2 – Broadband connections by type – 2002 - 2008
• Table 3 – Market share of broadband subscribers by type – 2002 - 2008
• Table 4 – ISP market share of broadband subscribers – 2006 - 2007
• Table 5 – Broadband availability by households – 2000 - 2009
• Table 6 – UK broadband market overview – 2004 - 2007
• Table 7 – Broadband penetration by technology – 2004 - 2008
• Table 8 – Total broadband subscribers by type – 2004 - 2008
• Table 9 – Broadband subscribers by type – incumbent or other provider – 2007 - 2008
• Table 10 – Percentage Internet access by dial-up and broadband – 2000 - 2007
• Table 11 – Dial-up Internet usage in minutes – 2002 - 2007
• Table 12 – PC, broadband and Internet household penetration – 2000 - 2007
• Table 13 – Broadband and narrowband share of connections – 2004 - 2007
• Table 14 – B2C e-commerce sales – 2007 - 2012
• Table 15 – Virgin Media subscribers by sector – 2007 - 2008
• Table 16 – Virgin Media ARPU – 2007 - 2008
• Table 17 – Virgin Media broadband subscribers by speed of service – 2007 - 2008
• Table 18 – Virgin Media financial data – 2007 - 2008
• Table 19 – Forecast broadband subscribers – higher market growth scenario – 2007 - 2012; 2018
• Table 20 – Forecast broadband subscribers – lower market growth scenario – 2007 - 2012; 2018
• Table 21 – xDSL subscribers – 2000 - 2008
• Table 22 – Average UK residential broadband subscription prices by speed – 2001 - 2007
• Table 23 – BT retail and wholesale broadband subscribers – 2004 - 2008

• Exhibit 1 – BT’s wholesale DSL products – 2008
• Exhibit 2 – Estimated cost of fibre by deployment technology – 2008