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Ofcom's latest Communications Market Report has revealed the takeup of superfast and ultrafast internet services in the UK is on the rise, with this also contributing to an increase in the amount of data consumed.
The telecoms regulator found that for the first time, the number of connections using fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) technology has overtaken those using standard copper connections.
Overall, the number of users with superfast broadband connections - those with download speeds of at least 30Mbps - increased by 17 per cent, to 15.6 million, as of the end of 2018. Over the same period, the average residential download speed increased by 18 per cent. The total takeup of internet services remains unchanged, with 87 per cent of households having such a connection.
Meanwhile, takeup of full fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) services remained low overall, but the availability of these options is on the rise. Ofcom noted seven per cent of properties now have access to this technology, up from three per cent a year ago.
In total, there were 11.2 million connections using FTTC technology as of the end of 2018, compared with 9.5 million using ADSL, 5.2 million cable customers and 510,000 FTTP users.
One consequence of faster speeds has been a significant increase in the amount of data being used, both on fixed-line broadband services and mobile connections.
The average data use per fixed broadband line increased by 26 per cent over the last year, to 240GB per month, and average monthly use rose by 25 per cent to 2.9GB.
Ofcom's report noted that much of this growth in data use is driven by online video. The regulator said: "Fifty-eight per cent of people watched on-demand video services, up from 53 per cent [last year]. This is driven by increased use of subscription video-on-demand services, such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video."
