Broadband spread 'may be nearing reaching saturation point'

The speed of broadband growth is predicted to slow, but only because it has been taken up by a significant portion of the country.

UK users numbered just over 14.5 million at the end of the second quarter this year, having added half a million new subscriptions over the preceding three-month period, according to data from Point-Topic.com.

However, this marked a downturn on the first quarter of 2007, when nearly 900,000 new users signed up to a broadband deal.

According to Think Broadband, the reason for this may be that those most likely to sign up to broadband already have done.

"What should be obvious to people following the broadband market is that as the number of connections increases, a point will be reached where those willing to sign-up will have signed up and the growth will slow," the website said.

Looking to the future, Think Broadband suggested that consumers will begin to focus more on the quality of the broadband service they receive rather than simply the cheapest price, adding that new technologies and shorter DSL lines could boost connection speeds.

"One advantage of shorter lines for running variants of DSL over is that the effects of noise should be lessened, making lines more reliable and thus more attractive for video and VoIP services," the website said.