There were approximately 19 million fixed broadband lines in the UK at the end of June 2010 including those used by small and medium enterprises (SMEs)

Year-on-year subscriber growth in Q2 increased by half a percentage point, following stabilisation in Q1, the first material since the early years of UK broadband

Looking at net additions in the quarter, Q2 saw a sequential drop of 23%, the lowest Q1 to Q2 sequential decline since 2005 . Year-on-year growth in net adds, at 51%, continued to accelerate rapidly

BT continues to improve its performance through cost reduction, with Global Services continuing to lead the way

Although a strike appears to have been averted, the next few quarters will be tougher due to increased EBITDA ‘re-investment’

Management is sticking to guidance which is, like the government, conservative in nature. Nonetheless, in our view, the forthcoming government spending review could still prove challenging

TalkTalk Group (TTG) reported revenue growth for the quarter to June was flattered by the Tiscali acquisition, but broadband net additions were reasonable given the protracted integration process and temporary absence from TV schedules of the X-Factor

An MVNO could prove challenging in terms of generating a significant direct impact on financial performance, but might help defend against other low price players, notably O2 and Tesco

Increasing demand for pay-TV, stimulated by Sky, VMed and now BT Retail, could potentially leave TTG exposed. Our current view is that there remains sufficient demand for ‘extended’ free-to-air TV for this not to be a major issue

Virgin Media’s Q2 results showed real strength in the top line, with continuing growth in cable revenue due to increases in both price and volume compounded by long-awaited growth in revenue from mobile and B2B, although overall performance was compromised to an extent by higher costs

The sale of VMtv to Sky cements a de facto pay TV duopoly by clarifying the distinctive wholesale and retail roles of the two leading players, against which others will find it hard to compete

The outlook continues to look encouraging despite the economic environment and this is reflected in management’s plan to return £700 million of capital, a historic milestone in the history of UK cable

Data on UK fixed line broadband revenueis sparse. Ofcom‘squarterly statistics do not include broadband revenue and neither Virgin Media nor TTG report it. Ofcom’sannual communications market report, published each year in August, includes an estimate of UK fixed broadband, dial-up and related revenue based on non-public data provided by operators. In June this year Ofcom published a provisional estimate of £3.3 billion for 2009 as part of the background to a discussion document on net neutrality

There were approximately 18.7 million fixed broadband lines in the UK at the end of March 2010 including those used by small and medium enterprises (SMEs)

Year-on-year subscriber growth in Q1 increased for the first time since the early years of the industry, although the increase, from 5.7% to 5.9% was very slight. In our view it should be interpreted as a stabilisation

Looking at net additions in the quarter, Q1 saw the sequential growth drop back to a more normal level of 9% after the 54% spike in the previous quarter, but year-on-year growth, at 21%, was the first really substantial increase since Q3 2005, when market growth was coming to the end of its exponential phase

The UK online market is among the most mature in Europe: while strong growth continued during 2000 (60% increase in home users), this was less dramatic than in Germany and France.

In this report we look at three regulatory initiatives to increase competitors access to the 'last mile' of incumbent monopolists: CPS and WLR in the UK, and UNE-P in the US. BT's market shares losses have accelerated in the business market due to CPS; we ask whether this will continue, whether it will happen in the residential market, and whether WLR will have an even worse effect.

Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) is a fashionable topic and this report provides our assessment about whether the mass market potential in Europe matches the rhetoric of enthusiasts or the experience of the United States. In other words, does VoIP represent a fundamental threat to the continent's (and the UK's) incumbent telecoms operators, which still dominate the fixed telephony business? In our view, VoIP in Europe has quite a limited potential for consumers in general although business applications will expand significantly.

Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) has been a failure in the UK, with BT maintaining a stranglehold on the wholesale supply of DSL connections. But in other European countries, LLU has helped provide competition to the incumbent PTT and acted as a catalyst for the development of new services, such as voice-over-broadband and TV-over-DSL, and generally brought prices down.