Yup, this article is not telling us pundits anything we didn't already know. Take-up of high-speed packages is low across the board. You see the same thing on Virgin where most people seem to be happy on the lower tier packages waiting for Virgin to upgrade them for free when Virgin decides it needs to make its averages look better and closes deprecated packages. Even where FTTP is available most people are opting for the lower packages. There's even people on Infinity 1 and 2 despite over FTTP.
Of course there's demand from some people and some people still have a shitty connection. But most people are happy with single digit speeds and just don't consider 'the internet' to be important enough to warrant anything better. And yes, several sites broadly agree with Ofcom based off their own data. Thinkbroadband does a monthly round up. There's graphs you can play with here.
Does the UK need FTTP? Yes, eventually it certain is the future and offers a lot of advantages, Is there customer demand? No. Or at least very little. That might annoy and surprise some people but that's the truth. Only a small minority of people actually want triple digit speeds and a vanishingly small number actually need them.
So I'm all in favour of FTTP but we should do so in the knowledge that we're well ahead of the demand curve. That's a good thing as long as we don't overstretch ourselves trying to achieve an arbitrary goal.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
