Third of UK households to have broadband before 2006

The number of subscribers to UK broadband networks broke through the 5 million mark in September according to the Telecom Markets' Broadband Subscriber Database (BSD). With some 50,000 new subscribers joining every week, the 5 million barrier was breached in mid-September. Out of some 3 million DSL subscribers about 40% subscribe to BT directly, the majority subscribing to a service offered by ISPs that buy their DSL service wholesale from BT. There were only 13,000 subscribers to unbundled DSL by the end of June compared to 730,000 in France. Forecasts based on the BSD suggest that there will be well over 8 million broadband customers in the UK by the end of 2005, about a tenth of whom will subscribe to unbundled DSL. Overall, a third of households will subscribe to broadband by the end of 2005.

UK Broadband Subscriber Forecasts
Q2 2004 	Q4 2004 	Q4 2005
Total broadband subs (mil.) 	4.36 	5.50 	8.20
Total broadband subs as a
% of households 	17.00 	21.47 	32.01
DSL subs (mil.) 	2.72 	3.60 	5.60
Cable broadband subs (mil.) 	1.63 	1.90 	2.60
LLU subs (mil.) 	0.01 	0.08 	0.86