Broadband connections in the UK rise above seventeen million.

The latest Ofcom report that contains the Telecommunications Market data tables offers the industry and analysts a clear indication of the UK’s broadband market and how fast it is or isn’t growing.

The data contained within the table only goes as far as September or the Third Quarter of 2008, although it is known that there were around 5.6 million unbundled connections by the end of January 2009. Even though the latest unbundled growth has been at the expense of services from both BT and Virgin Media the half a million increase in lines should take the number of broadband connections in the UK well past the 17 million mark.

The fall in the market share value of 2.1 percentage points for Virgin Media since 2006 could be explained by its lack of network expansion. On the other hand, even in the face of very stiff competition in the marketplace with other providers offering free (or almost free) broadband or products running at speed far exceeding that of the current BT retail offerings, BT Retail has managed to increase its market share during the same period.

Compared to the peak in Q4 2007 of 33 704 000 lines the number of UK exchange lines has now dropped to around 33 485 000. As more operators gain traction in the market the call volumes for both Virgin Media and BT are dropping according to the basic telephone data shown in the report. With a drop of just above 200 000 since 2006 the number of residential exchange line numbers as of Q3 of 2008 stood at 23 313 000.

The current question being asked is how Ofcom will be able to ensure that things will continue to thrive with its market led approach at a time when a large number of companies are finding it hard surviving let alone building up enough capital to allow it to push forward with next generation broadband access. This comes as the UK looks to make an advance, and early broadband adopters are look for a means to take the next big leap forward.