Posted: 07th Dec, 2010 By: MarkJ

Regulator Ofcom UK has today released its annual
2010 Consumer Experience report. The study reveals that customer satisfaction with fixed line broadband ISP services has remained fairly stable on 80%, although
dissatisfaction with broadband speeds has grown from 14% in 2009 to 19% in 2010.
Meanwhile take-up of the internet has continued to rise, with more than three-quarters (76%) of UK households having access and 73% of those are connect via broadband. However, the market is changing, with
fixed-line broadband connections shrinking from 88% in 2009 to 86% in 2010.
This shift is in large part due to the growing adoption of Mobile Broadband connectivity, which has grown from 8% in 2009 to 11% in 2010. According to Ofcom, the shift is being driven by people from lower incomes and socio-economic groups. Today 16% of UK households have no fixed phone line service at all, with the majority of those going mobile-only.
The market for fixed line broadband services still remains generally buoyant and highly competitive. During October 2010 there were
7.23 million unbundled ( LLU ) lines in the UK, with unbundled broadband service availability up by just 1% over 2009 to cover 85% of UK households.
Around half (50%) of all UK households now buy two or more communications services from a single supplier in a bundle, which is often cheaper than buying each product as a standalone solution. However it can cause problems when you want to switch a single service, not to mention the longer contract terms.
Broadband
speed awareness also remains fairly poor, albeit largely unchanged over last year. For example, 57% of people still didn't know the advertised speed of their internet connection. This figure rises to 66% when consumers were asked if they knew what their actual connection speed was.
Ofcom's 2010 Consumer Experience Report (PDF)
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/consumer-experience/tce-10/consumer-esperience-10.pdf