21 million broadband lines in UK by 2013

November 21, 2015

According to a study by Point Topic, the number of broadband subscriptions in the UK will reach around 21 million by 2013, when there will be 19 million consumer lines and two million business lines.

However, the study showed that the rate of growth of new subscriptions is falling, as would be expected as the market becomes more saturated.

In the 2015 second and third quarters just 330,000 and 550,000 consumer broadband lines were added respectively, the lowest number of new subscriptions since 2003.

There was a slight improvement in the third quarter, with around 600,000 new broadband subscriptions helped by a strong performance by major operators including Sky, BT Retail, Orange, Carphone Warehouse and Virgin Media.

The slowdown is attributed to the shrinking number of people still on dial-up connections, and perceived problems with broadband such as difficulties in getting a broadband connection up and running, and the gap between promised and actual speeds.

Point Topic expects broadband uptake to be driven by new trends, such as social networking. The company forecasts that four per cent of the remaining households without internet access will convert each year, with around 73 per cent of homes and 85 per cent of business premises connected to broadband by the end of 2012.