The latest Point Topic research has revealed that global speeds and prices of residential and business DSL (ADSL, SDSL etc.) broadband services increased by 4.7% and 9.3% respectively in the first quarter of 2008.

The global average residential DSL service cost and downstream speed in Q1 2008 increased to £30 per month (up 9.3% on Q407) and 6,517Kbps (up 4.7%) respectively. Business DSL prices now average £113 per month with a downstream speed of 4,126Kbps, an increase of 23% in price while downstream speed increased only by 3%.


However, UK consumers need not be too concerned about impending price rises. Most of the reported increases have been balanced out by the introduction of faster services and general exchange rate fluctuations.

That being said, prices can go up as well as down and the current budget model market may not last forever, especially with online content quality threatening to improve beyond the sustainability of many larger ISPs economic models.