The Communications Market 2010: Wales
Cable broadband availability
Less than half of UK households can get cable broadband
Just under half of UK households (48%) were passed by Virgin Media's broadband enabled cable network at the end of December 2009 (Figure 5.5). This figure has remained relatively stable over the past few years as the high costs related to cable network rollout have meant that Virgin Media has concentrated its efforts on upgrades to its existing network and increasing penetration in cabled areas. However, it is currently investing £100m on expanding its network to a further 500,000 homes and has announced that it is to trial delivering broadband services over telegraph poles, having identified more than a million UK homes that could benefit from such deployments.
Wales had the lowest cable broadband availability among the UK nations at the end of 2009
Among the UK nations, Wales had the lowest proportion of homes passed by Virgin Media's broadband network at the end of 2009 at 23%, while the proportion was highest in England at 51% (Figure 5.5).
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