The latest statistics from Point-Topic reveal that new broadband subscriptions took a hit during the third quarter of 2007, adding just 470,000 new subscribers compared with Q2's 510,000, which itself was lower than Q1.

The UK's had just under 15m (14.98m) broadband subscribers by the end of September 2007, with many major operators and ISP's expected to echo the slowing pace in their forthcoming results.

Point-Topic has attributed much of the drop to an increasingly small dial-up (narrowband) subscriber base, which has traditionally been behind the bulk of migration onto broadband platforms. Those that remain often see no reason to switch and may only connect to check e-mails or do very brief web surfing.

Naturally other aspects can also get in the way, such as confusion over the new jargon involved, poorly explained usage guidelines, advertised versus actual speeds, cost and so forth. Meanwhile 40% of households continue to go without any form of Internet access, a figure that hasn't really shifted for the past couple of years.

We recall that BT is currently researching this very problem, although we suspect that unless something drastic happens then the trend will continue on its way towards saturation.