Posted: 07th Aug, 2006 By: MarkJ
Research group Point Topic found growth in Q2-2006 to be the slowest since 2004, raising fears that UK broadband access could be nearing saturation. However, there may be another reason:
Point Topic, an Internet connectivity research company, claims market turmoil is causing the slow growth in broadband adoption, which accelerated by only 730,000 in the second quarter of 2006. The company claims this makes it the worst three months in the last two years.
Between October 2004 and March this year, the UK added an average of 75,000 broadband lines every week. In the April-June period this fell to only 56,000 lines per week. Point Topic estimates the total number of broadband lines in the UK at the end of June was more than 11.7 million.
Although the second quarter is usually the weakest, this fall was particularly sharp. Percentage growth in the quarter was only 6.6 per cent the lowest since broadband started.By "market turmoil" Point Topic is referring to the introduction of offers such as "free" broadband from The Carphone Warehouse (TalkTalk). Such ISP's have signed up many new customers, yet a high proportion have not yet physically been connected to the service. More @
ZDNet.