UK People Would Pay for Superfast Broadband if it was Available

March 5, 2012 - PRLog -- A new ISPreview.co.uk survey of 830 internet access subscribers in the United Kingdom (*) has revealed that almost three quarters (71%) of respondents would be willing to pay more to upgrade their current service with a reliable superfast broadband (25Mbps+) connection, yet over half (55%) pointed to a lack of availability (coverage) as being the main barrier to their adoption.

What stops you most from getting superfast broadband?
* No Availability - 55.4%
* Price - 16.3%
* I have it already! - 12.6%
* My current service is fine - 6.2%
* Other - 5.7%
* My area has it but not my ISP - 3.4%

The results also found that 34% of respondents currently pay at or over £21 (monthly) for their existing broadband service, while 24% pay between £16 and £20, a further 21% paid £11 to £15, 15% pay £6 to £10 and finally just 6% paid between £0 (free with some bundles) and £5 for their connection. By contrast Ofcom's July 2011 data (**) found that UK consumers paid an average of £17 per month for standalone fixed broadband, which alongside France makes us one of the lowest priced countries in the world.

The survey also noted that 20% of those who said they would be willing to pay more for superfast broadband actually had no idea how much extra it was worth, while 22% were willing to pay a premium of +£5 per month, 14% would pay +£10 extra and finally 15% were willing to stump up +£15 or more for the service. As a rough average most non-cable ISPs, such as BT, TalkTalk and Zen Internet, currently charge a monthly premium of around +£10 for their superfast (FTTC) packages.

"Ofcom's own data appears to suggest that the UK is one of the lowest priced countries in the world for broadband," said ISPreview.co.uk's Founder, Mark Jackson. "As a result it's quite encouraging that so many people, most of which will be use to paying very little for their current service, would still be willing to pay more for the next generation of superfast connectivity."

"Sadly the problem of availability has yet to be resolved and, for some, it could take until 2015 before 90% (government target) of people are within reach of a superfast service. At the same time many of the largest operators continue to focus on upgrades in urban locations, most of which can already benefit from good connectivity. Meanwhile the highest demand for superfast services, where people are often willing to pay more to escape years of slow service, usually comes from digital isolated rural areas. These are admittedly a lot more challenging to reach," concluded Jackson.

*  Online survey conducted between 1st February 2012 and 1st March 2012 with 830 UK internet users.

** http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/cmr/cm...