United Kingdom - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Last updated: 22 Dec 2020 Update History

Report Pages: 295

Analyst: Henry Lancaster

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Summary
Table Of Contents

UK preps for 2021 5G spectrum auctions

The UK’s telecom market remains one of the largest in Europe, characterised by fierce competition which has resulted in reduced pricing for end-users. Following some market consolidation in the mobile segment there are four key players and a number of MVNOs. Mobile broadband in coming years will place some additional pressure on the fixed-line broadband subscriber base as customers are tempted to migrate to 5G-enabled services. The fixed-line broadband sector has seen the steady decline in DSL and the ongoing efforts among a good number of operators to expand the reach of fibre networks. This is being supported by government efforts to encourage the right economic environment facilitating the ambition to have a fully-fibred UK.

The fixed-line voice segment is being similarly repositioned, with PSTN services making way for IP-delivered content. BT’s independent wholesale unit Openreach planned to complete the switch to fibre by 2025, and since September 2020 the unit has stopped offering copper-based products to fibre-enabled premises.

The UK’s broadband sector is fast migrating from copper to fibre. By September 2020 about 7.9 million premises were able to access a gigabit broadband service from full fibre or Virgin Media’s DOCSIS3.1 network. The vast majority of premises could access superfast broadband (of at least 30Mb/s).

The government’s own gigabit ambitions were scaled back in November 2020. Under its 2025 Gigabit program, a gigabit service was to be made available nationally, but this this was changed to 85% coverage.

The mobile market is also one of the largest in Europe, both in terms of revenue and in the number of subscribers. The market has room for a growing number of low-cost MVNOs providing effective price and service competition for subscribers. The country has developed one of the strongest 5G segments, with all MNOs increasing their footprints after having launched services progressively since 2019.

Auctions for spectrum in the 2.3GHz and 3.4GHz bands made more bandwidth available for mobile broadband services, supported by regulatory moves which allowed the refarming of 2G spectrum. Spectrum in the 700MHz and 3.5GHz bands will be auctioned in early 2021, having been being allocated for 5G use.

This report analyses the key aspects of the UK’s telecom market, presenting statistics on the fixed network services sector and an overview of the key regulatory issues including the status of interconnection, local loop unbundling, and carrier preselection. The report reviews the major fixed network telcos and examines the status of fixed-line voice services following the deregulation of the retail call market sector. The report also assesses the fixed and fixed-wireless broadband markets, covering technologies and including statistics and an update on recent commercial initiatives. In addition, the report surveys the UK’s mobile voice and data markets, providing an overview of mobile statistics, regulatory issues and technologies. It also profiles the major operators and MVNOs and looks ahead to mobile market developments in coming years.

BuddeComm notes that the outbreak of the Coronavirus is having a significant impact on production and supply chains globally. During the coming year the telecoms sector to various degrees is likely to experience a downturn in mobile device production, while it may also be difficult for network operators to manage workflows when maintaining and upgrading existing infrastructure. Overall progress towards 5G may be postponed or slowed down in some countries.

On the consumer side, spending on telecoms services and devices is under pressure from the financial effect of large-scale job losses and the consequent restriction on disposable incomes. However, the crucial nature of telecom services, both for general communication as well as a tool for home-working, will offset such pressures. In many markets the net effect should be a steady though reduced increased in subscriber growth.

Although it is challenging to predict and interpret the long-term impacts of the crisis as it develops, these have been acknowledged in the industry forecasts contained in this report.

The report also covers the responses of the telecom operators as well as government agencies and regulators as they react to the crisis to ensure that citizens can continue to make optimum use of telecom services. This can be reflected in subsidy schemes and the promotion of tele-health and tele-education, among other solutions.

Key developments:

Government bans Huawei equipment in 5G networks from September 2021;
Vodafone to switch off its 3G network by 2022;
Liberty Global and O2 announce merger;
Openreach to stop selling copper products to FttP-enabled premises by September 2021;
Ofcom clears 700MHz spectrum for January 2021 auction;
Government to invest £1 billion of fibre infrastructure and 5G technologies, scales back gigabit broadband coverage to 85% by 2025;
Report update includes the regular's market updates to June 2020, telcos' financial and operating data to Q3 2020, Telecom Maturity Index charts and analyses, assessment of the global impact of Covid-19 on the telecoms sector, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report:

Virgin Media, BT, KCom, Orange, Cable & Wireless, COLT Telecom, Dixons Carphone Group, Sky, O2, H3, Vodafone, Everything Everywhere (BT/EE, incorporating the former T-Mobile UK and Orange UK), Tesco Mobile

Key statistics
Regional European Market Comparison

Europe Telecom Maturity Index by tier

Market Leaders
Market Challengers
Market Emergents

TMI versus GDP
Mobile and mobile broadband penetration
Fixed versus mobile broadband penetration

Country overview
Covid-19 and its impact on the telecom sector

Economic considerations and responses
Mobile devices
Subscribers
Infrastructure

Telecommunications market

Market analysis

Regulatory environment

Historical overview
Regulatory authority

Office of Communications (Ofcom)

Fixed-line developments

Telecom sector liberalisation
Interconnect
Access
Number Portability (NP)
Carrier PreSelection (CPS)
Wholesale Line Rental (WLR)

Mobile network developments

Spectrum regulations
Spectrum refarming
Spectrum sharing
2.6GHz
800MHz
900MHz
700MHz
1800MHz
2.3GHz and 3.4GHz
Revised licence conditions
Other spectrum auctions
Roaming
Mobile Number Portability (MNP)
Mobile Termination Rates (MTRs)

Mobile market

Market analysis
Mobile statistics
Mobile infrastructure

5G
4G (LTE)
3G
Other infrastructure developments

Mobile voice
Mobile data

SMS and MMS
Mobile broadband

Major mobile operators

Hutchison 3
O2
Vodafone
EE
Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs)

Mobile content and applications

Mobile applications
M-payment MNO collaboration
Contactless payments
m-ticketing
m-banking
m-health

Fixed-line broadband market

Introduction and statistical overview

Market analysis
Broadband statistics
Government support

Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) networks
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) networks

G.fast

Fibre-to-the-Premises (FttP) networks

BT
Virgin Media/Fujitsu
Other developments

Other fixed broadband services

Broadband Powerline (BPL)
Fixed wireless (Wi-Fi and WiMAX)

Fixed network operators

British Telecom

Openreach
Company restructure

KCom
Cable & Wireless Communications (C&WC)
Virgin Media
COLT Telecom
Dixons Carphone Group (Carphone Warehouse)
TalkTalk Group
Sky

Telecommunications infrastructure

Overview of the national telecom network
Next Generation Networks
International infrastructure

Submarine cable networks
Satellite networks

Cloud services
Smart infrastructure

Appendix – Historic data
Glossary of abbreviations
Related reports

List of Tables

Table 1 – Top Level Country Statistics and Telco Authorities – United Kingdom – 2020 (e)
Table 2 – Change in consumer take-up of telecom services by type – 2010 – 2020
Table 3 – Fixed-line calls and access revenue by main operator– 2010 – 2020
Table 4 – Communications retail revenue by sector – 2010 – 2020
Table 5 – Change in telecoms revenue by service – 2013 – 2019
Table 6 – Change in the average retail household spend on telecoms services – 2013 – 2019
Table 7 – Change in fixed-line and mobile voice traffic (billion minutes) – 2010 – 2020
Table 8 – Change in average fixed and mobile call minutes per line – 2013 – 2019
Table 9 – Change in the proportion of calls made, fixed-line and mobile – 2010 – 2019
Table 10 – Change in telecom retail revenue by sector (£ billion) – 2010 – 2020
Table 11 – Change in the number of telecom connections by type (million) – 2010 – 2020
Table 12 – BT wholesale lines (new format) – 2016 – 2020
Table 13 – MTRs by operator (pence per minute) – 2015 – 2018
Table 14 – Mobile interconnection traffic – 2010– 2020
Table 15 – Growth in mobile voice traffic – 2010 – 2020
Table 16 – Change in mobile retail revenue by service – 2010 – 2020
Table 17 – Growth in the number of mobile subscribers and penetration – 2010 – 2025
Table 18 – Change in the number of mobile connections by type – 2010 – 2020
Table 19 – Decline in mobile ARPU by contract, prepaid (£ per month)– 2010 – 2020
Table 20 – Change in average household spend of fixed-voice and mobile services – 2012 – 2019
Table 21 – Change in the number of prepaid/ contract subscribers (million) – 2010 – 2020
Table 22 – Growth in the number of LTE subscribers – 2013 – 2019
Table 23 – Growth in O2’s LTE subscribers and penetration – 2014 – 2019
Table 24 – Growth in the number of M2M connections – 2010 – 2019
Table 25 – Growth in the number of O2’s M2M accesses – 2014 – 2020
Table 26 – Development of outgoing mobile voice traffic (billion minutes)– 2010 – 2020
Table 27 – Growth in average mobile data traffic per user– 2011 – 2019
Table 28 – Growth in contract/prepaid mobile data traffic – 2013 – 2020
Table 29 – Decline in the volume of SMS and MMS messages sent – 2010 – 2020
Table 30 – Change in average SMS/MMS traffic per month by contract type – 2010 - 2019
Table 31 – Change in the number of dedicated mobile broadband subscribers – 2008 – 2020
Table 32 – Growth in the number of active mobile broadband subscribers – 2010 – 2025
Table 33 – Growth in the number of H3’s registered subscribers by sector – 2008 – 2020
Table 34 – Growth in the number of H3’s active subscribers by sector – 2014 – 2020
Table 35 – Development of H3’s financial data – 2008 – 2020
Table 36 – Decline in H3’s annualised gross ARPU (£ month) – 2009 – 2020
Table 37 – Development of O2’s financial data –2010 – 2020
Table 38 – Development of O2’s quarterly financial data – 2013 – 2020
Table 39 – Change in O2’s mobile ARPU – 2010 – 2020
Table 40 – O2 proportion of data to service revenue – 2010 – 2019
Table 41 – Growth in the number of O2’s mobile subscribers by type – 2010 – 2020
Table 42 – Development of Vodafone’s mobile ARPU (blended, contract, prepaid) – 2010 – 2020
Table 43 – Vodafone (UK) subscribers and proportion prepaid – 2010 – 2020
Table 44 – Vodafone (UK) financial data – 2015 – 2021
Table 45 – Vodafone customer churn – 2007 – 2020
Table 46 – Vodafone Group revenue by sector (€ billion) – 2015 – 2021
Table 47 – Vodafone UK service revenue (€ billion) – 2016 – 2021
Table 48 – Vodafone mobile customer retention cost – 2016 – 2021
Table 49 – Growth in Vodafone’s mobile data traffic – 2013 – 2020
Table 50 – Development of EE’s mobile revenue (new format under BT) – 2016 – 2021
Table 51 – EE quarterly consumer mobile revenue (new format under BT) – 2016 – 2021
Table 52 – Decline in EE’s ARPU – 2009 – 2020
Table 53 – Change in the number of Virgin Mobile’s mobile subscribers – 2010 – 2020
Table 54 – Development of Virgin Mobile’s revenue – 2010 – 2020
Table 55 – Change in the number of fixed-line broadband connections by type – 2010 – 2020
Table 56 – Growth in the average headline broadband speed – 2010 – 2019
Table 57 – Change in the proportion of residential broadband connections by speed – 2013 – 2019
Table 58 – Change in market share of fixed-line broadband subscribers by provider – 2010 – 2019
Table 59 – Change in broadband penetration by technology – 2010 – 2019
Table 60 – Growth in the number of fixed-line broadband subscribers and penetration – 2010 – 2025
Table 61 – Growth in average consumer fixed-line broadband traffic – 2011 – 2019
Table 62 – Change in the number of superfast broadband subscribers and market share – 2010 – 2019
Table 63 – Growth in the number of Virgin Media’s cable broadband subscribers – 2010 – 2020
Table 64 – Development of Virgin Media’s cable ARPU – 2010 – 2020
Table 65 – Development of Virgin Media’s revenue – 2010 – 2020
Table 66 – Change in Virgin Media’s cable revenue – 2010 – 2020
Table 67 – Growth in the number of cable broadband subscribers – 2010 – 2020
Table 68 – Decline in the number of DSL subscribers – 2010 – 2020
Table 69 – BT consumer and wholesale broadband revenue – 2010 – 2021
Table 70 – Growth in the number of BT’s G.fast connections – 2017 – 2020
Table 71 – Growth in the number of fibre broadband connections by type – 2013 – 2019
Table 72 – Development in the number of Openreach’s fibre broadband connections – 2016 – 2020
Table 73 – Growth in the number of Vodafone’s fixed broadband subscribers – 2011 – 2020
Table 74 – Fixed-voice traffic volume by call type – 2010 – 2020
Table 75 – Fixed-voice revenue by call type (£ billion) – 2010 – 2020
Table 76 – Change in BT’s share of residential call types by traffic volumes – 2010 – 2019
Table 77 – Development of BT’s financial data – 2010 – 2021
Table 78 – BT retail fixed revenue, Consumer, Business divisions – 2012 – 2021
Table 79 – BT revenue, Consumer division (new style, £ million) – 2012 – 2021
Table 80 – BT revenue by Global Services, Wholesale and Openreach divisions – 2010 – 2021
Table 81 – Development of KCom’s revenue – 2010 – 2019
Table 82 – Development of Virgin Media’s revenue – 2010 – 2020
Table 83 – Virgin Media revenue by sector (£ million) – 2010 – 2020
Table 84 – Change in Virgin Media’s subscribers by sector (million) – 2010 – 2020
Table 85 – Development of TalkTalk Group’s financial data – 2009 – 2021
Table 86 – Change in the number of fixed lines in service and teledensity – 2010 – 2025
Table 87 – Historic - Fixed lines in service and teledensity – 1999 – 2009
Table 88 – Historic - Percentages of mobile and fixed phones in homes – 2000 – 2016
Table 89 – Historic - Call volumes, fixed-line and mobile in minutes – 2003 – 2010
Table 90 – Historic - KCom revenue – 2000 – 2010
Table 91 – Historic - Telecoms revenue by service – 2008 – 2017
Table 92 – Historic - Average household spend on telecoms services – 2005 – 2017
Table 93 – Historic - Fixed-voice traffic by type in minutes – 2002 – 2017
Table 94 – Historic - Virgin Media revenue – 2003 – 2010
Table 95 – Historic - Carphone Warehouse Europe revenue, profit – 2008 - 2014
Table 96 – Historic - TalkTalk subscribers – 2011 – 2015
Table 97 – Historic - Communications revenue by sector – 2003 – 2017
Table 98 – Historic - Household take-up of telecom services – 2003 – 2016
Table 99 – Historic - Communications wholesale and retail revenue – 2005 – 2017
Table 100 – Historic - Telecom connections: fixed, mobile, broadband – 2002 – 2009
Table 101 – Historic – BT’s LLU, shared wholesale lines (old format) – 2004 – 2017
Table 102 – Historic - Lines with CPS – 2004 – 2018
Table 103 – Historic - WLR lines – 2004 – 2018
Table 104 – Historic - Average fixed-voice revenue per month by call type – 2011 – 2016
Table 105 – Historic - BT share of residential call types by traffic volumes – 2002 – 2009
Table 106 – Historic - BT Consumer lines and TV subscribers – 2011 – 2017
Table 107 – Historic - COLT financial data – 2006 – 2015
Table 108 – Historic - COLT financial data by business – 2013 – 2015
Table 109 – Historic - H3 annualised data ARPU – 2009 – 2012

List of Charts

Chart 1 – Europe Telecoms Maturity Index – Market Leaders (top tier)
Chart 2 – Europe Telecoms Maturity Index – Market Challengers (middle tier)
Chart 3 – Europe Telecoms Maturity Index – Market Emergents (bottom tier)
Chart 4 – Overall view - Telecoms Maturity Index vs GDP per Capita
Chart 5 – Europe - mobile subscriber penetration vs mobile broadband penetration
Chart 6 – Scandinavia and Baltics: mobile subscriber penetration vs mobile broadband penetration
Chart 7 – Northern Europe –mobile subscriber penetration vs mobile broadband penetration
Chart 8 – Southern Europe mobile subscriber penetration vs mobile broadband penetration
Chart 9 – Eastern Europe mobile subscriber penetration vs mobile broadband penetration
Chart 10 – Scandinavia and Baltics fixed and mobile broadband penetration
Chart 11 – Northern Europe fixed and mobile broadband penetration
Chart 12 – Southern Europe fixed and mobile broadband penetration
Chart 13 – Eastern Europe fixed and mobile broadband penetration
Chart 14 – Change in consumer take-up of telecom services by type – 2010 – 2020
Chart 15 – Fixed-line calls and access revenue by main operator– 2010– 2020
Chart 16 – Change in telecoms revenue by service – 2010 – 2019
Chart 17 – Change in the average retail household spend on telecoms services – 2012 – 2019
Chart 18 – Change in fixed-line and mobile voice traffic (billion minutes) – 2010 – 2020
Chart 19 – Change in average fixed and mobile call minutes per line – 2013 – 2019
Chart 20 – Change in the proportion of calls made, fixed-line and mobile – 2010 – 2019
Chart 21 – Change in telecom retail revenue by sector: fixed, mobile – 2010 – 2020
Chart 22 – Change in the number of telecom connections by type – 2010 – 2020
Chart 23 – Growth in mobile voice traffic – 2010 – 2020
Chart 24 – Change in mobile retail revenue by service – 2010 – 2020
Chart 25 – Growth in the number of mobile subscribers and penetration – 2010 – 2025
Chart 26 – Change in the number of mobile connections by type – 2010– 2020
Chart 27 – Decline in mobile ARPU by contract, prepaid – 2010 – 2020
Chart 28 – Change in average household spend of fixed-voice and mobile services – 2012 – 2019
Chart 29 – Change in the number of prepaid and contract subscribers – 2010 – 2020
Chart 30 – Growth in the number of LTE subscribers – 2013 – 2019
Chart 31 – Growth in O2’s LTE subscribers and penetration – 2014 – 2019
Chart 32 – Growth in the number of M2M connections – 2010 – 2019
Chart 33 – Development of outgoing mobile voice traffic – 2010 – 2020
Chart 34 – Growth in average mobile data traffic per user– 2011 – 2019
Chart 35 – Growth in contract/prepaid mobile data traffic – 2013 – 2020
Chart 36 – Decline in the volume of SMS and MMS messages sent – 2010 – 2020
Chart 37 – Change in average SMS/MMS traffic per month by contract type – 2010 - 2019
Chart 38 – Growth in the number of active mobile broadband subscribers – 2010 – 2025
Chart 39 – Growth in the number of H3’s registered subscribers by sector – 2008 – 2020
Chart 40 – Growth in the number of H3’s active subscribers by sector – 2014 – 2020
Chart 41 – Development of H3’s financial data – 2008 – 2020
Chart 42 – Decline in H3’s annualised gross ARPU – 2009 – 2020
Chart 43 – Development of O2’s financial data – 2010 – 2020
Chart 44 – Development of O2’s quarterly financial data – 2013 – 2020
Chart 45 – Change in O2’s annualised ARPU – blended, contract, prepaid and data – 2010 – 2020
Chart 46 – Growth in the number of O2’s mobile subscribers by type – 2010 – 2020
Chart 47 – Development of Vodafone’s mobile ARPU (blended, contract, prepaid) – 2010 – 2019
Chart 48 – Vodafone (UK) subscribers and proportion prepaid – 2010 – 2020
Chart 49 – Vodafone (UK) financial data – 2015 – 2021
Chart 50 – Growth in Vodafone’s mobile data traffic – 2014 – 2020
Chart 51 – Development of EE’s mobile revenue (new format under BT) – 2016 – 2020
Chart 52 – EE quarterly consumer mobile revenue (new format under BT) – 2016 – 2021
Chart 53 – Decline in EE’s ARPU – 2009 – 2020
Chart 54 – Change in the number of Virgin Mobile’s mobile subscribers – 2010 – 2020
Chart 55 – Development of Virgin Mobile’s revenue – 2010 – 2020
Chart 56 – Growth in the average headline broadband speed – 2010 – 2019
Chart 57 – Change in the proportion of residential broadband connections by speed – 2013 – 2019
Chart 58 – Change in market share of fixed-line broadband subscribers by provider – 2010 – 2019
Chart 59 – Change in broadband penetration by technology – 2010 – 2019
Chart 60 – Growth in the number of fixed-line broadband subscribers and penetration – 2010 – 2025
Chart 61 – Growth in average consumer fixed-line broadband traffic – 2011 – 2019
Chart 62 – Change in the number of superfast broadband subscribers and market share – 2010 – 2019
Chart 63 – Growth in the number of Virgin Media’s cable broadband subscribers – 2010 – 2020
Chart 64 – Development of Virgin Media’s cable ARPU – 2010 – 2020
Chart 65 – Development of Virgin Media’s revenue – 2010 – 2020
Chart 66 – Change in Virgin Media’s cable revenue – 2010 – 2020
Chart 67 – Growth in the number of cable broadband subscribers – 2010 – 2020
Chart 68 – Decline in the number of DSL subscribers – 2010 – 2020
Chart 69 – Growth in the number of fibre broadband connections by type – 2013 – 2019
Chart 70 – Growth in the number of Vodafone’s fixed broadband subscribers – 2011 – 2020
Chart 71 – Fixed-voice traffic volume by call type – 2010 – 2020
Chart 72 – Fixed-voice revenue by call type – 2010 – 2020
Chart 73 – BT share of residential call types by traffic volumes – 2010 – 2019
Chart 74 – BT financial data – 2010 – 2021
Chart 75 – BT revenue by operating division – 2012 – 2021
Chart 76 – BT revenue, Consumer division (new style) – 2012 – 2020
Chart 77 – BT revenue by Global Services, Wholesale and Openreach divisions – 2010 – 2021
Chart 78 – Development of KCom’s revenue – 2010 – 2019
Chart 79 – Development of Virgin Media’s revenue – 2010 – 2020
Chart 80 – Virgin Media revenue by sector – 2010 – 2020
Chart 81 – Virgin Media subscribers by sector – 2010 – 2020
Chart 82 – Development of TalkTalk Group’s financial data – 2009 – 2021
Chart 83 – Change in the number of fixed lines in service and teledensity – 2010 – 2025

List of Exhibits

Exhibit 1 – Generalised Market Characteristics by Market Segment
Exhibit 2 – Spectrum available for mobile services
Exhibit 3 – Spectrum awards – 800MHz and 2.6GHz – 2013
Exhibit 4 – Spectrum awards – 2.3GHz, 3.4GHz – April 2018
Exhibit 5 – Spectrum auction results 10GHz – February 2008
Exhibit 6 – 3G licence results – April 2000
Exhibit 7 – 3G licensee and infrastructure suppliers
Exhibit 8 – H3 spectrum concessions
Exhibit 9 – Wireless opportunities using technology and frequencies
Exhibit 10 – Principal submarine cables from the UK
Exhibit 11 – 2Africa submarine cable
Exhibit 12 – 2Africa landing stations

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United Kingdom - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Purchase this Report

USD 1,400.00

UK preps for 2021 5G spectrum auctions

Key developments:

Companies mentioned in this report:

Key statistics

Regional European Market Comparison

Country overview

Covid-19 and its impact on the telecom sector

Telecommunications market

Regulatory environment

Mobile market

Fixed-line broadband market

Fixed network operators

Telecommunications infrastructure

Appendix – Historic data

Glossary of abbreviations

Related reports

Purchase this Report

USD 1,400.00

Share this Report

Purchase with Confidence

Research Methodology

Sample Reports

Research

Hot Topics

News & Views