The UK’s telecom market is one of the largest in Europe. Mobile and broadband penetration are comfortably ahead of the European average, while the country is a leader in digital TV take-up. Considerable competitive pressure has reduced consumer prices in all sectors, while network capabilities have been greatly expanded following recent investments by British Telecom and Virgin Media in Next Generation Networks. This report analyses the key aspects of the UK’s telecom market in 2008, presenting statistics on the fixed network services sector and an overview of the key regulatory issues including the status of interconnection, Local Loop Unbundling, and carrier preselection. The report reviews the major fixed network telecom operators in the UK, examines the status of fixed network voice services, and assesses the market impact of BT Openreach.
