he broadband market has Now, the price that we all expect
undergone nothing sort of a is free. Yes, providers are
revolution in the past 3 giving broadband away for free.
years. From a service dedicated Of course, this means that you
to only the most committed of have to sign up to a bundle with
internet users, to a mass market at least one other, non-free,
service that everyone home in the product. But we all use those
UK should really have. The rate products anyway, so there is not
of increase has been nothing any extra cost.
short of phenomenal.
The technological front involved
But this broadband growth has providers having to offer
caused a deep flaw in the market. ever-increasing speeds to stay
Broadband providers knew that it ahead of their competitors. When
was going to be very difficult to broadband first came out, it was
attract customers once they have at a speed of 512kb, which was
signed up with a rival provider. ten times faster than we were
So providers have been at all out used to on dialup. Now you can
war with each other to attract reach speeds of 24Mb, some 480
broadband adaptors while they are times faster than a dial up
up for grabs. The war is being connection. This need for speed
fought on two fronts. A price does not come for free. Providers
front and a technological front. have had to invest in their own
network with the very latest in
The war being fought on the price technological advances.
front simply involved providers
having to constantly under cut So to succeed in the broadband
each other. From £25 per month, market, providers have had to
to £20 to £15. Then it was £9.99, spend millions in technology and
which was an amazing price front. drop the price down to zero.
Broadband is now nothing more Bigger providers will start to
than a loss leader. A product absorb each other. This trend has
that is used to attract customers already begun with two of the
to another product that that broadband powerhouses, AOL and
company offers. But those other Tiscali, putting their UK’s
products, mainly home phone and operations up for sale. Only the
digital TV, are also highly strongest of the strong will
competitive. The intense pressure survive. This will lead to less
on providers to survive has lead competition and therefore less
to consolidations with bigger choice in the long run. But then
providers swallowing up smaller how much choice do we actually
ones. need. The market is likely to
become more like the mobile
But where is the future heading? market, which only has 6 main
Well, the simple answer is even networks. Competition is still
more consolidation. But not only rife amongst those 6, so as
will the bigger providers swallow consumers, we will still be able
up the smaller ones. The bigger to demand the world from
providers are the ones that face broadband providers.
the most pressure, with high
overheads and angry shareholders.
About the Author:
Tony George is the editor of http://www.stellardeals.co.uk.
Read more articles by:
Tony George
Article Source: www.iSnare.com 
