Fast broadband connections will hit the 250,000 mark in UK

BRITAIN WILL SEE 'superfast' broadband connections pass the quarter of a million mark this month, according to a report from the broadband analyst firm Point Topic.

Broadband speeds exceeding 25Mbps will be some of the fastest in the country, with many regions unable to get anywhere near this range. A quarter of a million connections is a major milestone, but it still represents only one per cent of homes across Britain, suggesting that the country is still lagging behind in the broadband race.

Point Topic found that there were 175,000 so-called 'superfast' broadband connections in the country at the end of 2010. Of these, 118,000 belonged to Virgin Media's 50Mbps service, while the remaining 57,000 connections were supplied by BT or providers running on BT infrastructure.

Using these figures Point Topic projected further growth to 236,000 by the end of March, which in turn led to a prediction that at least 250,000 fast connections will exist by the end of April.

Virgin Media continues to rule the roost in terms of speed with the majority of fast broadband connections on its network, but that is likely to change as networks are upgraded and faster speeds become more common. The lack of choice available in the market doesn't give consumers many options if they want top speeds, however.

Virgin Media runs its service using the Docsis 3 broadband standard over coaxial cables. The next fastest technology is fibre to the cabinet as part of BT's network. Fibre to the premises, which allows speeds in the 100Mbps range, is significantly less common, with only 3,700 users recorded at the end of 2010. µ