The history of broadband evolution shapes today's market. Hence why we're touching on it here. Significant migration of domestic internet connectivity from dialup to broadband started in year 2000 in the UK.
For the business user at that time, high speed internet connections were expensive dedicated leased lines that typically were the domain of larger businesses that had big budgets to spend on connectivity. Broadband options had been around since the late nineties with a few cable operators offering cost effective high speed connections. However, the options for small businesses and homes at the time were fairly limited with only sporadic availability of broadband connections. Getting a high speed connection at that time was a lottery of geographic location (i.e. one had to be within a particular catchment area of a Cable Company [CableCo]).
Everything changed in late 2000 when British Telecom (BT) came to the market with its generic DSL products. Rather than BT retaining exclusive retail rights for DSL, it opened up a wholesale channel programme allowing Internet Service Providers (ISP)s to resell BT generic DSL products. Operating as a broadband provider in the UK is becoming more difficult than it used to be in the early days as competition increases.
Many broadband providers will attempt to "wow" new customers with "faster and cheaper" broadband offers. However, cheap broadband usually comes with other restrictions such as bandwidth capping. Competitive provision of broadband services is good news for UK consumers. However, making like-for-like comparisons (and therefore well informed decisions about appropriate broadband products) is becoming increasingly difficult for customers.
For the business user at that time, high speed internet connections were expensive dedicated leased lines that typically were the domain of larger businesses that had big budgets to spend on connectivity. Broadband options had been around since the late nineties with a few cable operators offering cost effective high speed connections. However, the options for small businesses and homes at the time were fairly limited with only sporadic availability of broadband connections. Getting a high speed connection at that time was a lottery of geographic location (i.e. one had to be within a particular catchment area of a Cable Company [CableCo]).
Everything changed in late 2000 when British Telecom (BT) came to the market with its generic DSL products. Rather than BT retaining exclusive retail rights for DSL, it opened up a wholesale channel programme allowing Internet Service Providers (ISP)s to resell BT generic DSL products. Operating as a broadband provider in the UK is becoming more difficult than it used to be in the early days as competition increases.
Many broadband providers will attempt to "wow" new customers with "faster and cheaper" broadband offers. However, cheap broadband usually comes with other restrictions such as bandwidth capping. Competitive provision of broadband services is good news for UK consumers. However, making like-for-like comparisons (and therefore well informed decisions about appropriate broadband products) is becoming increasingly difficult for customers.
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