Posted: 12th Sep, 2006 By: MarkJ
The latest Point Topic research estimates that BT will be re-crowned largest UK broadband ISP by the end of the year, overtaking ntl:
Telewest. Typically they shot to the top after merging, yet coverage has not improved, hence BT's faster growth:
At the end of March 2006 NTL:Telewest, including the Virgin.net ISP, was 5% ahead of BT Retail in numbers of broadband subscribers. By the end of June the gap had narrowed to only 2.4%. If the trend is sustained, BT will once again be in lead in the broadband with a market share over 25% - roughly 3 million subscribers in total - by the end of the year.
The numbers come from Point Topics latest report UK ISP market shares to Q206. The research shows that the NTL group (NTL, Telewest & Virgin) has grown by only 3.1% this quarter, below the market average and significantly below its growth of 10.3% in Q405.
The declining share of the market is partly attributable to NTL:Telewests limited geographical coverage. As DSL reaches more remote and lower-density markets, cables share of the total is bound to suffer. The NTL part of the group has shown particularly slow growth, adding only 1.9% in net new subscribers for the quarter.
Meanwhile, BT succeeded in increasing its broadband market share for the fourth successive quarter, up to 24.3% from its low point of 22.4% in September 2005.It doesn't take a genius to work any of this out, meanwhile ntl:
Telewest seems content with its existing coverage. Its a shame because
Telewests side has always been very strong.