How Has Broadband Developed The Internet Over The Past 10 Years?

For something we now use so often and so voraciously, its hard to believe that just ten years ago the internet was in its mere infancy. Back in 2003 you may have been sitting on your oversize computer using dial up internet talking to friends onMSNwhile listening to the Spice Girls. We have come a long way since 2003 and not just in our musical tastes.

In around 2006 internet providers started to provide broadband which offered the benefits of being constantly connected and having no need to connect and re-connect or use the same line as your phone as well as a quicker speed. I do admit to feeling a little nostalgic for the ridiculous noise the computer would make as it dialled up to the internet, but I dont think anyone would miss the frustration of the slow internet connection dial up provided which often led to frustration and difficulty using the internet.

From here on in speeds of the internet were only set to get faster and that is exactly what the public wants, as many have cited that one of their biggest bugbears when working or trying to get something done online is a slow internet connection. More than half of UK homes had broadband in 2007, with an average connection speed of 4.6 Mbit/s. 40% of UK households took up broadband in the same year. This has been important for digital branding amongst many businesses across the UK.

According to an Ofcom report the average UK citizen in 2007 used the Internet for on average 36 minutes every day. In 2009, Virgin Media announced that they would offer 100 to 150Mbps broadband speeds up to two years before BT completed its rival fibre network. In simple terms, a fibre optic connection takes the fibre optic cable right into your home for the most stable and best possible speeds (1000Mbps+ capable). BT were calling this their superfast internet connection.

The race was certainly on to become the quickest internet provider and this again was mirroring what consumers wanted.

According to www.ispreview.co.uk the top 3 UK ISPs in 2013 by Subscriber Size are:

• BT (PlusNet) with 6,961,000 subscribers
• Sky Broadband with 5,017,000 subscribers
• Virgin Media with 4,488,600 subscribers

The demand for fast broadband was such that even this year a group of farmers from rural Lancashire, frustrated by their slow internet connection, have set up a not for profit community benefit society and began selling shares into Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN) to get a faster network built. And in the future, things are only set to get faster.

A government white paper entitled Investing in Britains future set to be published in June 2013 says:

• Developments in communications technology have driven some of the biggest economic transformations in the last century in the UK.
• They enable fundamental change to the way the economy is connected, creating vast new possibilities and opportunities.
• The Government is committed to putting the UK at the forefront of this revolution through:

Investing up to £250 million, locally match-funded, to extend superfastbroadband provision from current coverage plans so that 95 per cent of UKpremises will have access to superfast broadband by 2017; The paper also sets out some interesting facts and statistics revealing that:

Purchases alone over the internet are forecasted to expand 11 per cent each year to a UK projected £221 billion by 2016, compared with projected growth rates of only 5.4 per cent in the US and 6.9% in China.

92 per cent of adults now own a mobile phone, with two-fifths of these smartphones which changes the ways in which people access the internet on the go.

One thing is for sure, the internet of the future is set to develop fast. Technology appears to always be improving becoming quicker, smaller and better every year. I wonder if in ten years time, if the internet and laptop of today will have moved on as much as it had from our dial up days of 2003.

One thing we know is that Digital Marketing in Manchester is thriving, and long may it continue.