Posted: 20th May, 2008 By: MarkJ
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%.
The most significant speed changes were reported in Latin America, as average downstream residential and business speeds increased by 36% to 2,737 Kbps and 40% to 2,995 Kbps respectively.
It was due in part to Telecom Argentina and Telefonica del Peru, says Fiona Vanier, Senior Analyst at Point Topic.
Telecom Argentina introduced two new high speed business tariffs with downstream speeds of 20 Mbps while Telefonica del Peru expanded its range to include two new tariffs with downstream speeds of 5 Mbps.
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.