Telecoms analyst Point Topic has predicted that the total number of superfast broadband ISP lines in operation, specifically those that are able to deliver internet download "speeds in excess of 25Mbps", will pass the 250,000 mark this month (up from 175,000 at the end of 2010). Sadly this still equates to just 1% of homes in Britain (UK).

At present most of the uptake (146,000) has come from cable (EuroDOCSIS3) operator Virgin Media UK, which offers several 30Mbps, 50Mbps and 100Mbps packages. However, the new 40Mbps FTTC service from BT is growing at an even faster pace and is now home to 86,000 customers.


It's interesting to note that at the end of 2010 just 3,700 superfast end-users in the UK had fibre all the way to their homes ( FTTP ), which offers up to 100Mbps speeds or even more (not to be confused with Virgin Media's cable solution). Likewise most of BT's superfast customers came from their own retail ISP (BT Retail / BT Infinity), with just 3,000 connections being resold through BT Wholesale via 20 different ISPs.

Point Topic expects that the total number of UK connections carrying "super-fast" Next Generation Access (NGA) style broadband services will leap to over 600,000 by the end of 2011. That does look plausible, especially with big ISPs like TalkTalk now gearing up to launch related FTTC services in May 2011.