Oftels Global Internet Access Study
Posted: 04th Jun, 2003 By: MarkJ
The UK telecoms regulator, Oftel, has today published its international (Global) benchmarking study of Internet access covering both basic dial-up (narrowband) access and broadband services.
Typically there's a lot of information in the report, thus we'll simply summarise the more interesting quotes:
S.7 These results show that, based on the sample of service providers selected:
- for residential consumers, UK prices are cheaper than all countries for peak unmetered and metered services. For off-peak services UK prices are below average; and
- for business consumers, UK prices for unmetered services are well below those in France and Sweden, but above those in Germany and the US (California). UK prices for limited usage are cheaper than Sweden and the US, but more expensive than France and Germany.
S.8 In the UK and US, unmetered dial-up services are widely available. In the other European countries this is not the case, and cable modem and DSL services are more cost effective than dial-up for consumers with high usage. The results are based on the average of the two cheapest available options, and hence include some broadband packages.
S.11 Since the December 2002 report, Oftel has published a market review of broadband in which broadband is considered to be an always-on service in excess of 256kbit/s. For consistency, the minimum speed of the residential broadband and the low speed business basket has been changed from 129kbit/s to 257kbit/s. An additional "entry level" always-on residential basket has also been included to take into account the lower speed always-on services available in most benchmarked countries: the minimum speed of the additional basket is 128kbit/s.
Residential broadband services
For the residential broadband basket (ie where the consumer has a minimum bandwidth requirement of 257kbit/s), UK prices are cheaper then other countries, apart from Sweden, both for DSL only and when cable modems are included; and
Take-up of broadband services
S.19 While current levels of broadband take-up are low (below 9% of the population) in all of the countries benchmarked, take-up in the US and Sweden is markedly higher than in the other European countries. All countries tend to show a period of relatively slow take-up initially, followed by acceleration in the take-up rate. It is noted that broadband services were launched later in the UK than in other countries and this later start should be borne in mind when viewing this chart. Although the UK is behind in subscriber figures, the growth rate is faster than any other country included in the benchmark.
Alternative Broadband Technologies
S.22 The report has considered the availability, price and take-up of alternative broadband technologies such as Broadband Fixed Wireless Access (BFWA) and broadband satellite access. The market for alternative broadband technologies is still very new. While BFWA and satellite services are offered in all of the benchmarked countries, subscriber numbers are still low. Prices for two-way satellite services are generally above prices for DSL and cable modem services, although it is unclear how much of this price difference can be attributed to differences in the service parameters (such as speed, contention ratio, web hosting, security etc). One-way satellite combined with unlimited dial-up access for the return path is likely to be more expensive than DSL or cable modem services.
Read the rest HERE.
Typically there's a lot of information in the report, thus we'll simply summarise the more interesting quotes:
S.7 These results show that, based on the sample of service providers selected:
- for residential consumers, UK prices are cheaper than all countries for peak unmetered and metered services. For off-peak services UK prices are below average; and
- for business consumers, UK prices for unmetered services are well below those in France and Sweden, but above those in Germany and the US (California). UK prices for limited usage are cheaper than Sweden and the US, but more expensive than France and Germany.
S.8 In the UK and US, unmetered dial-up services are widely available. In the other European countries this is not the case, and cable modem and DSL services are more cost effective than dial-up for consumers with high usage. The results are based on the average of the two cheapest available options, and hence include some broadband packages.
S.11 Since the December 2002 report, Oftel has published a market review of broadband in which broadband is considered to be an always-on service in excess of 256kbit/s. For consistency, the minimum speed of the residential broadband and the low speed business basket has been changed from 129kbit/s to 257kbit/s. An additional "entry level" always-on residential basket has also been included to take into account the lower speed always-on services available in most benchmarked countries: the minimum speed of the additional basket is 128kbit/s.
Residential broadband services
For the residential broadband basket (ie where the consumer has a minimum bandwidth requirement of 257kbit/s), UK prices are cheaper then other countries, apart from Sweden, both for DSL only and when cable modems are included; and
Take-up of broadband services
S.19 While current levels of broadband take-up are low (below 9% of the population) in all of the countries benchmarked, take-up in the US and Sweden is markedly higher than in the other European countries. All countries tend to show a period of relatively slow take-up initially, followed by acceleration in the take-up rate. It is noted that broadband services were launched later in the UK than in other countries and this later start should be borne in mind when viewing this chart. Although the UK is behind in subscriber figures, the growth rate is faster than any other country included in the benchmark.
Alternative Broadband Technologies
S.22 The report has considered the availability, price and take-up of alternative broadband technologies such as Broadband Fixed Wireless Access (BFWA) and broadband satellite access. The market for alternative broadband technologies is still very new. While BFWA and satellite services are offered in all of the benchmarked countries, subscriber numbers are still low. Prices for two-way satellite services are generally above prices for DSL and cable modem services, although it is unclear how much of this price difference can be attributed to differences in the service parameters (such as speed, contention ratio, web hosting, security etc). One-way satellite combined with unlimited dial-up access for the return path is likely to be more expensive than DSL or cable modem services.
Read the rest HERE.
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