Regulator Ofcom has released its latest quarterly (Q4-2008) Telecommunications Market Data Tables (Download the .PDF here), which includes a breakdown of total small business and residential broadband connections. At the end of 2008 there were 17.3 million residential and small business UK broadband connections, an increase of 2.1% on Q3 2008, which breaks down as follows.

BT Retail DSL (ADSL) - 4,545,000
Other DSL (exc. LLU) - 3,509,000
Virgin Media (Cable) - 3,683,000
Other inc. (LLU DSL) - 5,539,000

There was a year-on-year increase of 1.7 million connections (11%) and BT Retail's market share of broadband connections fell by 0.1 percentage points during Q4-2008 to 26.3%, with Virgin Media at 21.3%. BT based broadband ISPs (Other DSL) also saw the sharpest decline from 3.7m in Q3-2008 to 3.5m in Q4.

Naturally cheaper unbundled broadband services ( Sky Broadband , O2 , Be Broadband etc. ) continued to grow and showed the biggest jump from 5.1m in Q3 to 5.5m in Q4.