UK nears broadband competition milestone

The UK has passed 9 million unbundled broadband lines, according to new figures from watchdog Ofcom.

This figure represents a 70-fold increase in the number of unbundled lines since 2005, when incumbent BT agreed to provide local loop unbundling services to rivals on its copper phone network.

Super-fast broadband services also continue to grow in popularity, with around 13 per cent of all residential connections super-fast by November 2012 – more than double the 5 per cent reported one year earlier.

Ofcom reports that it expects fibre deployment and investment to increase rapidly in the UK over the coming months.

Despite this rise in unbundled connections however, BT does remain the UK’s dominant broadband provider by far, with a 29 per cent share of the country’s 18 million subscribers, followed by cableco Virgin Media with 20 per cent.