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BT passes 15 million broadband milestone


WEBWIRE

More than 5,000 new customers added a day since 2002
UK ahead of France, Germany and the USA for broadband take up 1


BT today revealed that fifteen million homes and small businesses now access broadband over the company’s network. The milestone was passed in late August with more than five million of those connections being via BT Retail and the rest via other companies who benefit from equivalent access to the BT network.

Given BT had approximately 200,000 broadband connections in August 2002, the company has added 14.8 million connections in just eight years. This equates to more than 5,000 new broadband connections a day.

When Virgin Media customers are taken into account 2, the UK now has more than 19 million broadband premises using broadband. Those 19 million premises equate to 71 per cent of UK households, according to a recent Ofcom report 3, compared with just 35 per cent in 2005. The UK is ahead of France, Germany and the USA when it comes to broadband take up as a percentage of households 4.

The UK also boasts one of the best broadband availability figures in the world with 99 per cent of homes having access to broadband, a higher percentage than in France, Germany or Italy 5. Prices are also low thanks to a very competitive market in which BT has a retail market share of approximately 27 per cent. This compares with market shares of around 50 per cent for most major incumbents in Europe. 6

Olivia Garfield, BT strategy director said: “Broadband Britain has been a success story with widespread availability, low prices and high take up. People were sceptical when BT backed broadband in 2002 but the figures speak for themselves with the vast majority of new customers choosing broadband over BT’s network rather than alternative ones where prices are far higher.

“The story doesn’t end here as BT is now investing a further £2.5 billion to roll out fibre broadband to two thirds of the UK. This will help the UK climb the league tables for speeds, one of the few areas in which we don’t lead the world”.



1 Penetration measured as a percentage of households with broadband, OECD Portal 2010
2 Virgin Media reported broadband figures of 4.2m as at Q2 2010
3 Ofcom Communications Market Report 2010
4 See footnote 1
5 Relates to DSL broadband availability only (excluding cable broadband), OECD Broadband Portal 2010
6 ECTA Broadband Scorecard Q3, 2009

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