Ofcom said UK-based telecoms generated revenues of £37.4 billion of $58.43 billion in 2014, decreasing 2 percent – mainly due to falling wholesale service revenues.
Retail residential and SME fixed internet revenues increased to £4.9 billion in 2014 from £4.2 billion in 2013.
Almost four in five households have fixed broadband and around one in three of those are superfast lines delivering broadband speeds of 30Mbit/s or above.
By May 2015, 83 percent of UK premises were able to receive superfast broadband.
The number of 4G subscriptions reached 23.6 million in the UK, 28 percent of mobile subscriptions compared to 3 percent, from 2.7 million in Q4 2013.
SMS usage in the U.K. telecom market dropped to 110 billion messages in 2014 from 129 billion messages in 2013, due to OTT-based communications. New methods of communications are social media (62 percent), instant messaging (57 percent) and VoIP calls/video (34 percent).
33 percent of internet users consider smartphone as the important device for going online, against 30 percent with laptop, according to Ofcom’s 2015 Communications Market Report, published on 6 August.
During 2014, 4G subscriptions have leapt from 2.7 million to 23.6 million by the end of 2014.
55 percent of 4G users are shopping online compared with 35 percent of non-4G users; 55 percent do banking more online versus 33 percent; 57 percent do watching more TV and video clips online versus 40 percent; 28 percent making more face-to-face and voice calls over the internet versus 20 percent; 49 percent sending more photos and videos via text versus 36 percent; and 63 percent do instant messaging more with services such as WhatsApp versus 50 percent.
At least one 4G mobile broadband service is now available to 89.5 percent of UK premises, with four in ten people (42 percent) able to choose from all four 4G providers – EE, O2, Three and Vodafone.
Ofcom earlier asked UK telecoms to cover 98 percent of premises with indoor 4G signal from at least one operator by 2017.
Indoor 2G mobile voice coverage reaches 98 percent of people’s homes and offices.
Over the past five years, average monthly household spending on communication services has decreased in real terms, from £122.07 in 2009 to £117.71 in 2014 – representing a monthly decrease of £4.36, or £52.32 per year.
editor@telecomlead.com
