UK gains 300,000 new broadband lines

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The UK may have taken its knocks this week around the speed of our broadband but a new survey has shown a large increase in available infrastructure.

Broadband

More than 300,000 extra broadband lines were added in the UK in the fourth quarter of 2009, according to new research.

Point Topic has released a study showing the industry added a total of 308,000 lines during the quarter the largest amount in over a year and this has led to a forecast-breaking 18,356,000 overall lines across the UK.

Although there were 66,000 lines more than expected, growth over the entire year was not as strong.

"As expected in a mature market, year-on-year growth slowed with providers adding just 963,000 lines over the course of 2009, compared to 1,664,000 in 2008, and 2,612,000 in 2007," claimed the report.

Households signing up to the technology grew in the fourth quarter by 0.9 per cent, which the firm claimed was the best rise since the third quarter of 2008.

But when the falling number of dial-up connections was included into the figures, Point Topic said that it was equivalent to only a 0.6 per cent rise in overall penetration - standing at 62.1 per cent.

The report concluded that the figures showed there was "some way to go if the UK is to reach high levels of take-up."

Jennifer Scott
Jennifer Scott

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.