13 July 2005
For the first time, more households in the UK have a broadband rather than a dial-up connection, according to figures released by Ofcom today.
In its second annual Communications Market report, Ofcom announced that 30 per cent of all UK businesses and households have a broadband connection, and that the number of broadband connections has doubled since 2003 to a provisional figure for June 2005 of 8.1 million. The number of new broadband connections per week has also increased from 5,500 per week in 2001 to 73,800 per week in 2004.
Ofcom called 2005 "the year in which broadband became a genuinely mainstream consumer product".
Ofcom also announced that broadband average connection speeds are increasing and that, as a result of competition between providers, the cost of broadband has decreased, with a one Mbps connection costing £20 a month.
Ofcom also predicts that, due to mass-market appeal, rapid growth, decreasing prices, increasing connection speeds and development in video technology, the number of households able to view television over broadband will probably exceed the number of households reliant on analogue terrestrial broadcasts for all their television viewing by 2010.© DeHavilland Information Services plc
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