BBC NEWS | Technology | UK hits 3 million broadband mark
Fantastic figures from the Broadband market 3 million is a huge number - ntl make up just under a third of that. Not bad going for a company that covers only about a third of the UK.
Some interesting developments in the market over the next 6 months will see whether the pure access model has peaked and now users will start to expect more form their basic service. While early adopters have tended to be the 'net savvy' consumer, more and more of the early and late majority are net newbies or occasional users who may perhaps need more of an expereince before really taking up broadband.
BT have obviously partnered with Yahoo and various other deal have been muted. Ntl's Broadband Plus offering has been getting good reviews and has been well received by customers. I would suggest more of the same next year with further deals, inclusion of more applications and more service linked to Broadband - home security is one that is mentioned a lot.
Maybe 2004 will also see Voip roled out properly in the UK - having seen a video phone proposition today from ntl's modem suppliers Ambit, I expect this to start moving next year (although how ntl will be involved if at all is another matter).
I do expect Consumer devices to start to have ethernet connections as standard and for them to have some form of Internet link either to content or services and also to start talking to each other via ethernet. Again whether anyone can find the so called killer app remains to be seen but to paraphrase my favourite Chinese curse "we live in interesting times".
Posted by Paul Goodison at December 12, 2003 11:01 PM | TrackBack