UK broadband connections pass 17.3 million

The number of residential and small business broadband connections in the UK has now passed 17.3 million, new figures reveal.

Telecoms regulator Ofcom has released its Telecommunications Market Data Tables covering the fourth quarter of 2008.

This confirms the new record-breaking level of broadband adoption in the UK, which had also increased by 2.1 per cent on the previous quarter.

Year-on-year broadband connections have now grown by an average of 1.7 million, or 11 per cent.

The report also reveals that BT Retail's ADSL service accounted for 4.545 million of total connections, while Virgin Media's cable connections numbered 3.683 million.

DSL users on alternative providers (excluding local loop unbundling) accounted for 3.509 million, while other provider local loop unbundling DSL stood at 5.539 million.

Indeed, unbundled broadband packages from providers such as Sky Broadband and O2 experienced the largest jump from 5.1 million in Q3 2008 to 5.5 million in Q4.

In related news, a survey of 500 families by telecoms operators O2 has revealed that British consumers are more willing to cut their spending on food and other household essentials during the recession rather than broadband.