Broadband has reached more than 13 million homes in the United Kingdom. The proliferation is such that with very few potential customers left to be tapped, the growth rate has actually declined by 20% since last year. However, now that the benefits of a cheap broadband connection are known to all and sundry, it is all set to win over even those households which had opted to stay without an internet connection until now.

Out of the different ways available to receive broadband in the UK, ADSL and cable broadband are the most accessible and popular choices for residential customers. Talking of a restriction one can say that as cable broadband does not run via the BT phone system, you can only receive it if you stay in particular localities where the broadband providers have already established their networks. For the rest, there are other options available.

Satellite and wireless technologies come to your mind when you look at the other ways of receiving internet connections at home. These high-end technologies are still in their nascent state in the UK and seem quite out of reach of the residential users.

However, to make broadband more accessible to the customers, Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) is being introduced in the UK market. This is the process where the incumbent operator makes its local network available to other companies. It enables the operators to upgrade individual lines using DSL technology to offer its services direct to the customer.