Broadband bills drop by over fifty percent in five years

Recently released figures have shown that the competition amongst broadband providers in the UK has seen the cost of broadband drop by over fifty percent in five years.

Broadband is something that many households could not manage without these days, with many having become reliant on this technology for all sorts of things ranging from entertainment and communications to shopping, dealing with payments, banking, research, education, and more.

The good news is that consumers in the UK no longer have to pay through the nose to have access to broadband services, because tough competition in the market has been driving prices down, making the technology far more affordable for consumers.

According to recently released data this level of competition in the market, with independent companies running their own networks and providers offering low cost bundles that include television and landline services, has resulted in the cost of broadband coming down by a massive fifty two percent in the last five years.

In 2005 the UK’s communications regulator Ofcom started allowing competitors to BT, which had the monopoly in the market, to start installing their own equipment into the local telephone exchange. This created competition that would see prices plunge over the next five years. The regulator stated: “Ofcom’s research shows that there are now over 19 million broadband lines in the UK. Of these, more than 70% are provided by companies other than BT, many on the basis of unbundled lines.”