UK Broadband Market Slowing November 07, 2007

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The UK broadband market is slowing markedly as fewer new subscribers sign up for broadband services.

Fewer than 470,000 new subscribers signed up from July to September in the UK, down from 510,000 in the previous quarter – a figure that was itself lower than previous quarters. The fact is that the UK is running out of dial-up users interested in zippy Net access.

According to Tim Johnson, chief analyst at Point Topic:

“The reason for the sudden drop is largely the shrinking size of the remaining pool of dial-up users. There are fewer now and the ones that are left are more resistant to change. On top of that, the industry has been failing to bring enough new homes on line.”

Many of the dial-up users left use the Net intermittently and see no reason why they should fork out a lot more for something they rarely use.

Point Topic said that the falling numbers also highlight the growing digital divide. Johnson adds:

“We believe this sends a danger signal for broadband Britain with almost 40% of British households on the wrong side of the digital divide. The social and economic progress of the UK will be stalled unless the great majority of these homes can be brought on to the internet.”

By the end of this year, UK broadband customers could amount to 15.5 million, up 17% on 2006. Both BT and Virgin – the largest broadband suppliers in the UK - are expected to announce results this week so it will be interesting to see how depressed their broadband figures will be.

That said, for many Gizmodo readers, broadband’s speedy promises are a long way off the reality.-Martin Lynch

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