Demand for broadband defies recession

The broadband sector has continued to perform well, in spite of the global economic downturn, a report published this week has suggested.

The survey by Gartner advised that regardless of the state of the UK economy, the demand for high-speed internet services had remained strong.

The study revealed that the sector had continued to carry on “robustly”, and predicted that the number of fixed-line connections serving homes across the UK could reach 422 million by the end of the year.

According to Amanda Sabia, principal research analyst at the firm, more people were looking to upgrade their old dial-up connections to a faster, more reliable option and this was just one of the factors driving the market.

“Multiple motivations are conspiring to keep broadband growth strong,” she added, noting more affordable subscriptions and “aging populations requiring broadband connectivity” are just some of these.

“Consumers may be watching their household expenditure, but dropping their broadband connections is not on the top of their agendas,” Ms Sabia concluded.

Recent figures from the Office for National Statistics show that online retail is also playing a big role in web popularity – with sales in August up by 2.1 per cent year on year.

Share with others...