Broadband signups decline

A drop in the numbers of people signing up for broadband in the UK is putting the country's economic and social progress in jeopardy.

That's according to web monitoring company Point Topic who warned that new subscriber numbers to be released this week by two of the biggest ISPs in the UK - BT and Virgin Media - are likely to be disappointing.

Point Topic estimates that 470,000 households signed up to broadband between the months of July and September this year, down from 510,000 between April and June.

"The reason for the sudden drop is largely the shrinking size of the remaining pool of dial-up users," says Tim Johnson, chief analyst at Point Topic.

"Not only are there fewer of them but the ones that are left are also more resistant to change. On top of that, the industry has been failing to bring enough new homes online," Johnson continued.

According to Point Topic, this slowdown could further exaggerate the 'digital divide' in the UK and have significant economic and social consequences.

"We believe this sends a danger signal for broadband Britain. With almost 40 per cent of British households on the wrong side of the digital divide the social and economic progress of the UK will be stalled unless the great majority of these homes can be brought on to the internet," said Johnson.

The number of broadband lines in the UK stands at just under 15 million. BT has four million broadband subscribers and Virgin Media around 3.5 million.

Virgin Media will announce the results for the third quarter of 2007 tomorrow, while BT will make a similar statement on Thursday.

www.point-topic.com
www.bt.com
www.virginmedia.com

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