ISPA welcomes growth in the broadband market

ISPA welcomed yesterday’s report from Ofcom on the state of the UK broadband market, which again showed huge growth in the take up of high-speed ‘superfast’ internet (defined as over 30 mbps). Superfast take up is now up to 22% of all connections (up from 10% last year) and is now available to three quarters of homes in the UK, reflecting the innovation and investment ISPA members have made in their networks, enabling customers to enjoy better services like HD quality on-demand video and cloud applications.

ISPA members currently represent 98% of the UK internet access market, with huge diversity, from the major access providers, to ultrafast, mobile and Wi-Fi ISPs. The report also shows increasing demand for data, with UK customers currently using 650m gigabytes of data a month, with an increased use of public Wi-Fi and mobile internet.

ISPA Secretary General Nicholas Lansman said “The UK has long been seen as the world’s most competitive telecoms market and broadband is the only utility which has seen prices drop, so it’s excellent connectivity and speeds are increasing with prices going down for consumers. Particularly pleasing is the fact more people are taking up superfast connections and 4G, showing there is clearly appetite for the newest technology.”

 He also called for further clarity from government on their long term plans for broadband roll-out adding “I also call in the government to develop its broadband plans beyond 2015, to address the final 10% and we will be discussing this at our annual conference in November.”

 The full report can be seen here.

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Notes to the editor:

The Internet Services Providers’ Association (ISPA) was established in 1995 as the trade association for the UK internet industry. ISPA promotes competition, self-regulation and the development of the sector and is the voice of the internet industry to government, parliamentarians, the media and the public. For a list of members or other information about ISPA, please visit www.ispa.org.uk or see our twitter @ISPAUK.

The views expressed in this release are those of the Internet Services Providers’ Association (ISPA) and do not necessarily reflect the corporate policies of the individual companies that are members of the Association or other organisations that may be mentioned in the release. For further editorial information please contact the ISPA Press Office (020 3397 3308 or pressoffice@ispa.org.uk).