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

Publication Overview

This report provides a comprehensive overview of trends and developments in the UK’s telecommunications market. The report analyses the fixed-line, mobile and broadband sectors. Subjects include:

Market and industry analyses, trends and developments;
Facts, figures and statistics;
Industry and regulatory issues;
Infrastructure developments;
Major Players, Revenues, Subscribers, ARPU, MoU;
Mobile Voice and Data Markets;
Broadband (FttP, DSL, cable, wireless);
Mobile subscribers and ARPU;
Broadband market forecasts;
Government policies affecting the telecoms industry;
Market liberalisation and industry issues;
Telecoms operators – privatisation, IPOs, acquisitions, new licences;
Mobile technologies (GSM; 3G, HSPA, LTE, 5G).

Researcher:- Henry Lancaster
Current publication date:- December 2018 (17th Edition)

Executive Summary

UK aiming to be fully-fibred by 2033

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 is characterised by 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 by 2033. British Telecom is aiming to provide ultra-fast broadband services to some ten million premises by 2020, while Vodafone is also partnering with CityFibre to deliver an extensive 1Gb/s service to about five million premises by 2025.

The fixed-line voice segment is being similarly repositioned, with PSTN services making way for IP-delivered content. BT’s independent wholesale unit Openreach plans to complete the switch to fibre by 2025.

The mobile market has room for a growing number of low-cost MVNOs providing effective price and service competition for subscribers. The market has also been characterised by developments in advanced data services delivered over upgraded networks, the bundling of mobile as a quad-play service, and regulatory controls on charges and fees. Mobile penetration is above the EU average, and in common with developments in many other European markets subscriber growth has dipped in recent quarters as consumers respond to economic pressures and more generous pricing offers among operators which has negated some of the justifications for multiple SIM card ownership.

Auctions for spectrum in the 2.3GHz and 3.4GHz bands have made more bandwidth available for mobile broadband services, supported by regulatory moves which allow the refarming of 2G spectrum for 3G and 4G use. Spectrum will also be released in the 700MHz band during 2019, which spectrum is also being allocated for 5G. Operators continue to trial 5G technologies with a number of key vendor partners.

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. This report also surveys the mobile market, providing an overview of mobile statistics, regulatory issues and technologies. It covers the major operators and MVNOs and looks ahead to mobile market developments in coming years. In addition the report assesses the overall UK broadband market, covering broadband technologies and including the latest statistics, an update on recent commercial initiatives, an assessment of Next Generation Access, and subscriber forecasts.

Key Developments

BT transfers 31,000 employees to Openreach Ltd;
BT and Huawei trial 3Tb/s channel over existing fibre;
Arctic cables to connect UK to Japan;
Government to invest £1 billion of fibre infrastructure and 5G technologies, launches £400 million investment aimed at connecting up to two million premises with a 1Gb/s FttP service by 2020;
Hyperoptic to deliver FttP to Brent borough;
Government publishes its Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review;
USO to guarantee minimum 10Mb/s service by 2020;
O2 trials Li-Fi technology;
Openreach to commercialise Dark Fibre Access product;
CityFibre partners with Vodafone to extend fibre;
BT developing G.fast technology;
Hyperoptic to extend fibre broadband to two million people across 50 cities;
BT launches Fibre-on-Demand product, trials 10Gb/s service using XGPON technology;
Ofcom completes 2.3GHz and 3.4GHz spectrum auction;
Vodafone aiming to close 3G infrastructure by 2020, EE by 2022;
EE achieves 2.8Gb/s in pre-5G trials, plans to launch services in 16 cities in 2019;
MNOs extend Wi-Fi calling and VoLTE services;
New rates for MNP imposed;
Government increases funding for 5G test-beds;
4G auction in 2.6GHz and 800MHz bands delivers £2.34 billion;
Vodafone trials LTE-V2X technology;
Report update includes the regular's market updates to June 2018, telcos' financial and operating data to Q3 2018, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report:

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

Henry Lancaster
December 2018

Table of Contents

Key statistics

Country overview

Telecommunications market

Market analysis

Regulatory environment

Historical overview
Regulatory authority

Office of Communications (Ofcom)

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

Fixed network operators

Overview
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

Broadband market

Introduction and statistical overview

Market analysis
Broadband statistics
Forecasts – broadband subscribers – 2019; 2021; 2023
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)

Digital media

Video-streaming

Mobile communications

Market analysis
Mobile statistics

Operator market shares

Mobile infrastructure

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

Mobile voice
Mobile data

SMS and MMS
Mobile broadband

Forecasts – mobile subscribers – 2019; 2021; 2023
Regulatory issues

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

Major mobile operators

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

Mobile content and applications

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

List of Tables

Table 1 – Top Level Country Statistics and Telco Authorities – United Kingdom – 2018 (e)
Table 2 – Percentages of mobile and fixed phones in homes – 2000 – 2016
Table 3 – Consumer take-up of telecom services by type – 2006 – 2016
Table 4 – Fixed-line calls and access revenue by main operator– 2007 – 2018
Table 5 – Communications retail revenue by sector – 2003 – 2018
Table 6 – Telecoms revenue by service – 2008 – 2017
Table 7 – Average household spend on telecoms services – 2005 – 2017
Table 8 – Average household spend on fixed voice/data services – 2012 – 2017
Table 9 – Communications revenue by sector – 2003 – 2017
Table 10 – Communications wholesale and retail revenue – 2005 – 2017
Table 11 – Call volumes, fixed-line and mobile in minutes – 2003 – 2018
Table 12 – Proportion of calls made, fixed-line and mobile – 2006 – 2018
Table 13 – Telecom retail revenue by sector: fixed, mobile – 2007 – 2018
Table 14 – Telecom connections: fixed, mobile, broadband – 2002 – 2018
Table 15 – Household take-up of telecom services – 2003 – 2016
Table 16 – BT LLU, shared wholesale lines (old format) – 2004 – 2017
Table 17 – BT wholesale lines (new format) – 2016 – 2018
Table 18 – Lines with CPS – 2004 – 2018
Table 19 – WLR lines – 2004 – 2018
Table 20 – Fixed-voice traffic by type in minutes – 2002 – 2018
Table 21 – Fixed-voice traffic volume by call type – 2010 – 2018
Table 22 – Fixed-voice revenue by call type – 2011 – 2018
Table 23 – Average fixed-voice revenue per month by call type – 2011 – 2016
Table 24 – BT share of residential call types by traffic volumes – 2002 – 2018
Table 25 – BT Consumer lines and TV subscribers – 2011 – 2017
Table 26 – BT financial data – 2006 – 2018
Table 27 – BT retail revenue, Consumer, Business divisions – 2012 – 2018
Table 28 – BT revenue, Consumer divisions (new style) – 2017 – 2019
Table 29 – BT revenue by Global Services, Wholesale and Openreach divisions – 2007 – 2019
Table 30 – KCom revenue – 2000 – 2019
Table 31 – Virgin Media revenue – 2003 – 2018
Table 32 – Virgin Media revenue by sector – 2006 – 2018
Table 33 – Virgin Media subscribers by sector – 2007 – 2018
Table 34 – COLT financial data – 2006 – 2015
Table 35 – COLT financial data by business – 2013 – 2015
Table 36 – Carphone Warehouse Europe revenue, profit – 2008 – 2014
Table 37 – TalkTalk financial data – 2009 – 2019
Table 38 – TalkTalk subscribers – 2011 – 2015
Table 39 – Historic - Fixed lines in service and teledensity – 1999 – 2009
Table 40 – Fixed lines in service and teledensity – 2010 – 2018
Table 41 – Fixed-line broadband retail revenue – 2001 – 2018
Table 42 – Fixed-line broadband connections by type – 2002 – 2018
Table 43 – Average headline broadband speed – 2006 – 2017
Table 44 – Proportion of residential broadband connections by speed – 2011 – 2016
Table 45 – Devices used for internet access, market share – 2013 – 2017
Table 46 – Market share of fixed-line broadband subscribers by provider – 2005 – 2016
Table 47 – Broadband penetration by technology – 2004 – 2017
Table 48 – Historic - Percentage internet access by dial-up and broadband – 2000 – 2013
Table 49 – Historic - Internet users and penetration – 2002 – 2009
Table 50 –Internet users and penetration – 2010 – 2018
Table 51 – Fixed-line broadband subscribers and penetration – 2002 – 2018
Table 52 – Fixed-line broadband subscribers and penetration – 2002 – 2018
Table 53 – Internet connectivity type, by household – 2003 – 2016
Table 54 – Average consumer fixed-line broadband traffic – 2011 – 2017
Table 55 – Forecast broadband subscribers – 2019; 2021; 2023
Table 56 – Superfast broadband subscribers and market share – 2010 – 2017
Table 57 – Virgin Media subscribers by sector – 2007 – 2018
Table 58 – Virgin Media ARPU – 2007 – 2018
Table 59 – Virgin Media revenue – 2007 – 2018
Table 60 – Virgin Media cable revenue – 2015 – 2018
Table 61 – Cable broadband subscribers – 2011 – 2017
Table 62 – DSL subscribers – 2000 – 2018
Table 63 – BT retail and wholesale broadband subscribers – 2004 – 2018
Table 64 – BT consumer and wholesale broadband revenue – 2015 – 2018
Table 65 – Fibre broadband subscribers – 2011 – 2017
Table 66 – BT fibre broadband subscribers – 2014 – 2018
Table 67 – Vodafone broadband subscribers – 2014 – 2018
Table 68 – Virgin Media bundled services subscribers as proportion to total – 2014 – 2018
Table 69 – Virgin Media bundled services subscribers as proportion to total – 2008 – 2018
Table 70 – Call volumes, fixed-line and mobile in minutes – 2003 – 2017
Table 71 – Mobile retail revenue by service – 2002 – 2018
Table 72 – Historic - Mobile subscribers and SIM penetration rate – 1995; 1997; 1999 – 2009
Table 73 – Mobile subscribers and SIM penetration rate – 2010 – 2018
Table 74 – Mobile ARPU by contract, prepaid – 2006 – 2018
Table 75 – Average household spend of fixed-voice, mobile and internet services – 2008 – 2016
Table 76 – Prepaid and contract subscribers – 2002 – 2018
Table 77 – Mobile market share by operator – 2004 – 2016
Table 78 – LTE subscribers – 2013 – 2018
Table 79 – Average 3G and 4G speeds (Mb/s) – 2014 – 2015
Table 80 – O2 LTE subscribers and penetration – 2014 – 2018
Table 81 – EE LTE subscribers – 2013 – 2015
Table 82 – M2M connections – 2010 – 2018
Table 83 – O2 M2M accesses – 2014 – 2018
Table 84 – Average mobile data traffic per user– 2011 – 2017
Table 85 – SMS and MMS messages sent – 2004 – 2018
Table 86 – Average SMS/MMS traffic per month by contract type – 2010 – 2017
Table 87 – SMS and MMS revenue – 2015 – 2017
Table 88 – Dedicated mobile broadband subscribers – 2008 – 2018
Table 89 – Active mobile broadband subscribers – 2009 – 2018
Table 90 – Broadband take-up by technology – 2007 – 2016
Table 91 – Forecast mobile subscribers – 2019; 2021; 2023
Table 92 – European roaming charges – 2007 – 2016
Table 93 – European data roaming charges – 2014 – 2017
Table 94 – MTRs by operator (pence per minute) – 2015 – 2018
Table 95 – Mobile interconnection traffic – 2007 – 2018
Table 96 – H3 registered subscribers by sector – 2008 – 2018
Table 97 – H3 active subscribers by sector – 2014 – 2018
Table 98 – H3 financial data – 2008 – 2018
Table 99 – H3 annualised gross ARPU by sector – 2009 – 2018
Table 100 – O2 financial data –2007 – 2018
Table 101 – O2 quarterly financial data –2013 – 2018
Table 102 – O2 ARPU – blended, contract, prepaid and data – 2006 – 2018
Table 103 – O2 proportion of data to service revenue – 2006 – 2018
Table 104 – O2 subscribers, prepaid and contract – 2005 – 2018
Table 105 – Vodafone end-year ARPU – blended, contract and prepaid – 2005 – 2018
Table 106 – Vodafone (UK) subscribers and proportion prepaid – 2001 – 2018
Table 107 – Vodafone (UK) mobile financial data – 2008 – 2019
Table 108 – Vodafone customer churn – 2007 – 2018
Table 109 – Vodafone Group revenue by sector – 2007 – 2019
Table 110 – Vodafone UK mobile service revenue by sector – 2009 – 2019
Table 111 – Vodafone mobile customer retention cost – 2007 – 2019
Table 112 – Vodafone customer smartphone adoption – 2010 – 2016
Table 113 – Vodafone mobile data traffic – 2013 – 2018
Table 114 – EE quarterly revenue (old format) – 2009 – 2016
Table 115 – EE financial data (old format) – 2011 – 2015
Table 116 – EE mobile revenue (new format under BT) – 2017 – 2018
Table 117 – EE quarterly mobile revenue (new format under BT) – 2016 – 2018
Table 118 – EE ARPU (Q4) – 2009 – 2018
Table 119 – EE subscriber data – 2009 – 2018
Table 120 – Virgin Mobile subscribers – 2005 – 2018
Table 121 – Virgin Mobile revenue – 2007 – 2017

List of Charts

Chart 1 – Communications revenue by sector – 2003 – 2017
Chart 2 – Communications wholesale and retail revenue – 2005 – 2017
Chart 3 – Call volumes, fixed-line and mobile in minutes – 2003 – 2018
Chart 4 – Telecom connections: fixed, mobile, broadband – 2002 – 2018
Chart 6 – Fixed-voice traffic volume by call type – 2010 – 2018
Chart 7 – Fixed-voice revenue by call type – 2011 – 2018
Chart 8 – BT share of residential call types by traffic volumes – 2002 – 2018
Chart 9 – BT financial data – 2006 – 2018
Chart 10 – BT revenue by operating division – 2012 – 2018
Chart 11 – Virgin Media revenue by sector – 2006 – 2018
Chart 12 – Virgin Media subscribers by sector – 2007 – 2018
Chart 13 – Fixed-line broadband connections by type – 2002 – 2018
Chart 14 – Broadband penetration by technology – 2004 – 2017
Chart 15 – Virgin Media subscribers by sector – 2007 – 2018
Chart 16 – BT retail and wholesale broadband subscribers – 2004 – 2018
Chart 17 – Call volumes, fixed-line and mobile in minutes – 2003 – 2017
Chart 18 – Mobile retail revenue by service – 2002 – 2018
Chart 19 – Mobile subscribers and SIM penetration rate – 2003 – 2018
Chart 20 – Mobile ARPU by contract, prepaid – 2006 – 2018
Chart 21 – Prepaid and contract subscribers – 2002 – 2018
Chart 22 – H3 subscribers by sector – 2008 – 2018
Chart 23 – H3 financial data – 2008 – 2018
Chart 24 – H3 ARPU by sector – 2009 – 2018
Chart 26 – O2 annualised ARPU – blended, contract, prepaid and data – 2006 – 2018
Chart 27 – O2 subscribers, prepaid and contract – 2005 – 2018
Chart 28 – Vodafone ARPU – blended, contract and prepaid – 2005 – 2018
Chart 29 – Vodafone (UK) subscribers and proportion prepaid – 2001 – 2018
Chart 30 – Vodafone (UK) financial data – 2008 – 2019
Chart 31 – EE ARPU – 2009 – 2018
Chart 32 – EE subscriber data – 2009 – 2018