The UK still trails the rest of Europe in broadband takeup – 14% of UK homes have it, compared to 45% in Germany and 22% in France. Mind you, these figures include ISDN (and I wouldn’t, since it is metered and one of the most important things about broadband is not that it is fast but that it is always on…). The DTI told the BBC that in most other European countries 90% of broadband is provided by one operator and that prices here are dropping while there they are rising.
Of course our prices are dropping- they have been too high too long… And competition to provide broadband has not been that strong – the cable companies have captive markets and not much money to spend on promotion, while BT controls the infrastructure to ADSL provision even if a few other ADSL providers “re-badge” their service.
However there is a little good news on the horizon – Todmorden in West Yorkshire has reached the “trigger” number of interested customers via BT’s “register your interest” website for it to be upgraded to ADSL. Now 3/4 of those who said they were interested have to put their money where their mouths are and subscribe. If they do they could have broadband by Xmas.
