Ofcom: UK Adults Consuming More 4G, Fibre, VoIP And Public Wi-Fi

Ofcom says the increasing use of 4G, superfast broadband, VoIP and public Wi-Fi are the main trends in the telecoms market, with total revenues across fixed and mobile communications providers, the TV, radio and post industries amounting to £60.2 billon during 2013.

The UK regulator’s annual Communications Market Report (CMR) reveals there are now 83.1 million mobile connections in the UK, with users making 134.1 billion minutes of calls and sending 129.9 billion texts every year.

LTE services are now available on all four major networks, with Ofcom reporting that there are six million 4G connections in the UK, up from 318,000 a year earlier when only EE was entering such service.

Faster connections

The report adds that 73 percent of the population has access to EE’s service, with O2 covering 41 percent and Vodafone 36 percent as of March 2014. However it’s worth noting that both coverage and customer numbers are likely to have increased since then, with EE alone now claiming 4.2 million subscribers.

The number of superfast broadband users increased by 58 percent to 6.1 million during 2013, with connections of 30Mbps or higher now accounting for 26.7 percent of all Internet connections in the UK. While BT and Virgin Media have been the main players in the superfast market, Ofcom says other firms like Sky, TalkTalk and EE have been able to secure more customers thanks to their marketing efforts.

Combined with the fact that 61 percent of UK adults have smartphones, 44 percent of households have a tablet and 63 percent have a laptop, the arrival of faster speeds and improved connectivity has resulted in increasing use of VoIP services and public Wi-Fi.

VoIP and public Wi-Fi use

More than a third of British adults use VoIP services, with this proportion higher among younger demographics who are attracted by the ability to make video calls to friends and family in the UK or abroad while bypassing any charges.

VoIP providers like Skype do let users call mobile and landline numbers for a fee, but the main types of call are still VoIP to VoIP. This, along with rising mobile use, could help to explain the ongoing decline in the number of landline call minutes to just 92 billion a year.

The other trend is the increasing use of public Wi-Fi. The majority of wireless use still occurs at home, but 15 percent of users connect to a network at a place of work or study, while 11 percent will do so in a public place such as a café, bar, hotel or restaurant. Public Wi-Fi is used for lower bandwidth activities, mainly indoors, and is preferred on free hotspots.

Other communications

In other sectors, average TV viewing has fallen below four hours a day for the first time since 2009 at three hours 52 minutes, but the UK television industry still generated £12.9 billion in rvenue during 2013, an increase of 3.4 percent. Expenditure rose by 3.7 percent to £5.8 billion, mainly as a result of higher spending by sports broadcasters.

More than 90 percent of the population still listens to radio, but average listening time continues to fall, especially among younger age groups who prefer to stream music over the Internet. Digital platforms now account for more than a third of all listening and total industry revenues fell by 2.1 percent, although the BBC’s expenditure fell by £4 million during 2013 and commercial stations’ costs decreased by £21 million.

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