UK ISP, Cable and Dongle User Numbers - Jan 2009

Here is an update of the UK ISP market covering DSL and Cable Access market as well as the first inclusion of the Mobile Dongle market in the UK. I have used ITU published data for Broadband usage numbers and Neilson Ratings to get an accurate picture as well all the reports and disclosures for each of the companies shown below. I believe these figures represent a reasonably accurate representation of the genuine adoption of broadband either via DSL, Cable or mobile dongle. Broadband connections included in this data cover download speeds equal to or faster than 256kbit/s.

ISP     Total    % of   UK Accts. BT 4,600,000 25.87% Virgin Media 3,885,800 21.86% CPW (inc AOL) 2,700,000 15.19% Sky 1,955,000 11.00% Tiscali UK 1,774,000 9.98% Orange 1,023,000 5.75% Royal Mail 560,000 3.15% O2 (Be & Dongles) 287,090 1.61% 3 (Mobile Dongles) 215,000 1.21% Kingston      195,255 1.10% T-Mobile (Dongle) 132,000 0.74% Thus 126,000 0.71% Vodafone (Dongle) 116,000 0.65% Entanet 92,000 0.52% Clara.net UK 72,000 0.40% Breathe 12,000 0.07% Supanet 6,000 0.03% Others 28,000 0.16% Total    17,779,145   100.00%

Following on from C&W acquisition of Thus, Kingston still look very vulnerable and would make a good fit for C&W or for Sky as they continue to make their play to achieve 3 million broadband users.  The Tiscali saga seems to have no end in sight and given the current economic climate the allure to perspective buyers of plain utility broadband (PUB) is looking increasingly unattractive.

One exciting area of development has been the inclusion of the growing “Internet Dongle” market.  T-Mobile, 3 and Vodafone are all significant players in this growing market and I have decided it is worth including them in the list as their business takes share from the PUB operators.

BT is beginning to roll out its 21st Century Network (21CN) and they are seeking to work with a whole range of ISP partners to offer new services.  The investment in 21CN must deliver much slicker broadband to ensure BT maintains top slot as Virgin and notably O2 are making great play of the 20 Meg plus services.  The rise of 3G Mobile Dongle market is beginning to mop up the rest of the available UK broadband demand and the only way to retain users will be through increased speed and extended range of services many of them bundle into the basic price.

This begs the question, where will future revenues come from?  PPC rates are declining across the board and Google is eating everyone’s lunch.  CPA continues to prosper, but it is a long way from the major sources of new media advertising revenue.  Let’s hope that it isn’t to the likes of Phorm that BT come to rely on from value added income from user activity.