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Just five Internet Service Providers account for 88 per cent of the UK broadband market,
following the series of high-profile acquisitions that have taken place
of late.
In June last year, 10
providers shared 82 per cent of the market between them. Of those 10, AOL , Telewest and Virgin have since merged and AOL has been absorbed by Carphone Warehouse , while BT and Tiscali have both expanded their user
bases with the acquisitions of PlusNet and HomeChoice respectively.The latest figures compiled by Thinkbroadband show that BT including
PlusNet and Virgin Media (the new name for the combined ntl:Telewest an
Virgin businesses) each have 24.6 percent.According to recent Ofcom , just five percent of UK households subscribe to the UK’s 686 ‘niche’
providers. But when it comes to business broadband provision the
picture is very different, with around 30 percent of UK companies
relying on niche providers, who are able to offer tailored packages
and a much higher quality of support services.At
the same time as this research has come out a number of other articles
have appeared reporting a high amount of dissatisfaction. So what should you look for in an ISP?
The key to this centres around customer support and the level of
support you require. If you have to call someone, you want a quick
answer to your problems or at least an idea of where the problem lies.
Smaller companies do this better because you can usually speak to
someone, without going through a call centre.
