United Kingdom - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband

The UK telecoms market extended its pattern of declining revenue into a fifth consecutive year in 2020, dropping a further 1.9% year-on-year. This was despite gains in subscriber numbers in some of the key growth areas of the market, particularly broadband, as well as increases in voice and data traffic brought about by the long periods of lockdown that were in force throughout the country for much of the year. Those upswings were offset by sharp drops in ARPU resulting from an increased preference for bundling, more competitive pricing, and a reduction in roaming revenue due to Covid-19-related restrictions on overseas travel.

The telco market's gradual downward trend masks what has otherwise been a tumultuous period for UK industry in general. The full impact of the double-whammy that the country experienced with both Covid-19 and Brexit hitting at around the same time is still far from clear. The OECD found that the UK suffered far more than other G7 countries due to the combined effect of these two major events, however early economic indicators into 2021 suggest that the country has the resiliency and ability to fight back - thanks, in part, to the relative success of the Covid-19 vaccination program that has allowed much of the UK population to return to work sooner than its neighbours.

The government is committed to maintaining a strong and competitive telecommunications environment. In policy and in pounds, the industry is receiving a high level of government support for rolling out broadband throughout the country. There is a particularly strong push to extend coverage into more rural and remote areas, with a national Full Fibre broadband access target in 2033. One of the additional downsides to the UK's withdrawal from the EU, however, is that the country no longer has access to the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), which previously provided much of the cash for the development of broadband. The UK government must instead fund its fibre-broadband initiatives using internal resources.

Key developments:

International roaming charges to be reintroduced for travel to Europe.

By the end of 2020, 38% of UK homes were able to get gigabit-capable broadband. Ultrafast coverage (greater than 300Mb/s) reached 61% of premises.

Openreach will stop selling copper-based products to fibre-connected premises from September 2021.

Eutelsat launched a UK-wide satellite broadband service in December 2020 via its Konnect satellite, offering data rates up to 100Mb/s.

The government acquired a 45% stake in OneWeb, following the UK's exit from the EU and the country no longer being part of Europe's Galileo satellite positioning system.

OneWeb launched its first set of satellites in December 2020, aiming for services to be made available across the country by the end of 2021.

Liberty Global's Virgin Media and Telefónica's O2 were merged in a JV to form Virgin Media O2, in the process creating a major competitor to BT.

Blocks of spectrum in the 700MHz and 3.6GHz bands were auctioned in March 2021, strengthening 5G deployment.

This report includes the regulator's market data reports to Q1 2021, telcos' financial and operating data updates to June 2021, Telecom Maturity Index charts and analyses, assessment of the global impact of Covid-19 on the telecoms sector, and other recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report:

British Telecom (BT), KCom, Virgin Media O2 (VMed O2), Hutchison Three (H3), EE, Vodafone, Liberty Global, Telefónica, Ericsson, Virgin Mobile, Openreach, Eutelsat, Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC), COLT, Dixons Carphone Group/Carphone Warehouse, TalkTalk, Sky, OneWeb.

Key statistics

Regional European Market Comparison

Europe Telecom Maturity Index by tier
- Market Leaders
- Market Challengers
- Market Emergents
TMI versus GDP
Mobile and mobile broadband penetration
Fixed versus mobile broadband penetration

Country overview

Covid-19 and its impact on the telecom sector

Economic considerations and responses
Subscribers
Infrastructure

Telecommunications market

Regulatory environment

Historical overview
Regulatory authority
- Office of Communications (Ofcom)
Fixed-line developments
- Telecom sector liberalisation
- Interconnect
- Access
- Number Portability (NP)
- Carrier PreSelection (CPS)
- Wholesale Line Rental (WLR)
- European Electronic Communications Code
Mobile network developments
- Spectrum regulations
- Spectrum re-farming
- Spectrum sharing
- 2.6GHz
- 700MHz
- 800MHz
- 900MHz
- 1800MHz
- 2.3GHz and 3.4GHz
- Revised licence conditions
- Other spectrum auctions
- Roaming
- Mobile Number Portability (MNP)
- Mobile Termination Rate (MTR)

Mobile market

Mobile infrastructure
- 6G
- 5G
- 4G (LTE)
- 3G
- Other infrastructure developments
Mobile voice
Mobile data
- SMS and MMS
Mobile broadband
Major mobile operators
- H3
- VMed O2
- Vodafone
- EE
- Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs)
Mobile content and applications
- Mobile applications
- M-payment MNO collaboration
- Contactless payments
- m-ticketing
- m-banking
- m-health

Fixed-line broadband market

Government support
- Digital Britain
- Rural broadband
Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) networks
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) networks
- G.fast
Fibre-to-the-Premises (FttP) networks
- BT
- Virgin Media/Fujitsu
- Other developments
Other fixed broadband services
- Broadband Powerline (BPL)
- Fixed wireless (Wi-Fi and WiMAX)

Telecommunications infrastructure

National telecom network
Next Generation Networks
International infrastructure
- Submarine cable networks
- Satellite networks
Cloud services
Smart infrastructure

Appendix - Historic data

Glossary of abbreviations

Related reports

List of Tables

Table 1 - Top Level Country Statistics and Telco Authorities - United Kingdom - 2021 (e)
Table 2 - Change in telecoms revenue by service (£ billion) - 2012 - 2020
Table 3 - Communications retail revenue by sector (£ billion) - 2010 - 2020
Table 4 - Change in fixed-line and mobile voice traffic (billion minutes) - 2011 - 2020
Table 5 - Change in average fixed and mobile call minutes per line - 2013 - 2020
Table 6 - Change in the proportion of calls made, fixed-line and mobile - 2011 - 2020
Table 7 - Fixed-line call and access revenue by main operator (£ billion) - 2010 - 2021
Table 8- Change in the average retail household spend on telecoms services (£ / month) - 2011 - 2020
Table 9 - BT wholesale lines (thousand) - 2016 - 2021
Table 10 - Decline in the MTR (pence per minute) - 2015 - 2021
Table 11 - Change in mobile interconnection traffic - 2010 - 2021
Table 12 - Growth in mobile voice traffic - 2011 - 2020
Table 13 - Change in mobile retail revenue by service (£ billion) - 2010 - 2021
Table 14 - Growth in the number of mobile subscribers and penetration - 2011 - 2026
Table 15 - Change in the number of mobile connections by type (million) - 2011 - 2020
Table 16 - Change in the proportion of prepaid and contract subscribers - 2011 - 2020
Table 17 - Decline in mobile ARPU by contract, prepaid (£ per month) - 2010 - 2020
Table 18 - Growth in the number of LTE subscribers - 2013 - 2020
Table 19 - Growth in O2's LTE subscribers and penetration - 2014 - 2019
Table 20 - Growth in the number of M2M connections - 2010 - 2020
Table 21 - Growth in the number of O2's IoT/M2M connections - 2014 - 2021
Table 22 - Development of outgoing mobile voice traffic (billion minutes) - 2010 - 2021
Table 23 - Growth in average mobile data traffic per user - 2011 - 2020
Table 24 - Growth in contract/prepaid mobile data traffic (PB) - 2013 - 2021
Table 25 - Decline in the volume of SMS and MMS messages sent - 2010 - 2021
Table 26 - Change in average SMS/MMS traffic per month by contract type - 2010 - 2020
Table 27 - Growth in the number of active mobile broadband subscribers and penetration - 2011 - 2026
Table 28 - Growth in the number of H3's registered subscribers by sector (million) - 2011 - 2021
Table 29 - Growth in the number of H3's active subscribers by sector (million) - 2014 - 2021
Table 30 - Development of H3's financial data (£ million) - 2011 - 2021
Table 31 - Decline in H3's annualised gross ARPU (£ month) - 2009 - 2021
Table 32 - Development of VMed O2's financial data (€ billion) - 2010 - 2021
Table 33 - Growth in the number of VMed O2's mobile subscribers by type (million) - 2010 - 2021
Table 34 - Change in VMed O2's mobile ARPU (€ / subscriber / month) - 2010 - 2020
Table 35 - Change in the proportion of VMed O2's data to service revenue - 2010 - 2019
Table 36 - Development of Vodafone's mobile ARPU (prepaid, contract, blended) (€/subscriber/month) - 2010 - 2021
Table 37 - Vodafone (UK) subscribers and proportion prepaid - 2010 - 2021
Table 38 - Vodafone (UK) financial data (€ billion) - 2015 - 2021
Table 39 - Vodafone customer churn - 2011 - 2021
Table 40 - Vodafone UK service revenue (€ billion) - 2016 - 2022
Table 41 - Vodafone mobile customer retention cost - 2016 - 2021
Table 42 - Growth in Vodafone's mobile data traffic - 2013 - 2021
Table 43 - Vodafone Group revenue by sector (€ billion) - 2015 - 2022
Table 44 - Development of EE's consumer mobile revenue (£ million) - 2016 - 2022
Table 45 - Decline in EE's ARPU (£/month) - 2009 - 2021
Table 46 - Change in the number of Virgin Mobile's mobile subscribers (million) - 2010 - 2021
Table 47 - Development of Virgin Mobile's revenue - 2010 - 2021
Table 48 - Growth in the number of fixed-line broadband subscribers and penetration - 2011 - 2026
Table 49 - Growth in average consumer fixed-line broadband traffic - 2011 - 2020
Table 50 - Change in the number of fixed-line broadband connections by type (million) - 2011 - 2020
Table 51 - Growth in the average headline broadband speed - 2010 - 2020
Table 52 - Change in the proportion of residential broadband connections by speed - 2013 - 2020
Table 53 - Change in market share of fixed-line broadband subscribers by provider - 2011 - 2020
Table 54 - Change in the number of superfast broadband subscribers and market share - 2010 - 2020
Table 55 - Growth in the number of Virgin Media's cable broadband subscribers - 2010 - 2021
Table 56 - Development of Virgin Media's cable ARPU - 2010 - 2021
Table 57 - Change in Virgin Media's cable revenue - 2010 - 2021
Table 58 - Decline in the number of DSL subscribers - 2011 - 2020
Table 59 - BT consumer and wholesale broadband revenue (£ billion) - 2010 - 2022
Table 60 - Growth in the number of BT's G.fast connections - 2017 - 2021
Table 61 - Growth in the number of fibre broadband connections by type (million) - 2013 - 2020
Table 62 - Change in the number of Openreach's fibre broadband connections (thousand) - 2016 - 2021
Table 63 - Growth in the number of Vodafone's fixed broadband subscribers - 2011 - 2021
Table 64 - Change in the number of fixed lines in service and teledensity - 2011 - 2026
Table 65 - Fixed-voice traffic volume by call type (billion minutes) - 2010 - 2021
Table 66 - Fixed-voice revenue by call type (£ billion) - 2010 - 2021
Table 67 - Change in BT's share of residential call types by traffic volumes - 2011 - 2021
Table 68 - Development of BT's financial data (£ billion) - 2010 - 2022
Table 69 - BT retail fixed revenue, Consumer and Business divisions (£ million) - 2012 - 2022
Table 70 - BT revenue by Global Services, Wholesale and Openreach divisions (£ million) - 2010 - 2022
Table 71 - Decline of KCom's revenue - 2011 - 2020
Table 72 - Development of Virgin Media's revenue - 2010 - 2021
Table 73 - Change in Virgin Media's subscribers by sector (million) - 2010 - 2021
Table 74 - Development of TalkTalk Group's financial data (£ million) - 2009 - 2021
Table 75 - Historic - Fixed lines in service and teledensity - 1999 - 2010
Table 76 - Historic - Percentages of mobile and fixed phones in homes - 2000 - 2016
Table 77 - Historic - Call volumes, fixed-line and mobile in minutes (billion minutes) - 2003 - 2010
Table 78 - Historic - KCom revenue - 2000 - 2010
Table 79 - Historic - Telecoms revenue by service (£ billion) - 2008 - 2017
Table 80 - Historic - Average household spend on telecoms services (£ / month) - 2005 - 2017
Table 81 - Historic - Fixed-voice traffic by type in minutes (billion minutes) - 2002 - 2017
Table 82 - Historic - Virgin Media revenue - 2003 - 2010
Table 83 - Historic - Carphone Warehouse Europe revenue, profit (£ million) - 2008 - 2014
Table 84 - Historic - TalkTalk subscribers - 2011 - 2015
Table 85 - Historic - Communications revenue by sector (£ billion) - 2003 - 2017
Table 86 - Historic - Household take-up of telecom services - 2003 - 2016
Table 87 - Historic - Communications wholesale and retail revenue (£ billion) - 2005 - 2017
Table 88 - Historic - Telecom connections: fixed, mobile, broadband (million) - 2002 - 2010
Table 89 - Historic - BT's LLU, shared wholesale lines (old format) (thousand) - 2004 - 2017
Table 90 - Historic - Lines with CPS - 2004 - 2018
Table 91 - Historic - WLR lines - 2004 - 2018
Table 92 - Historic - Average fixed-voice revenue per month by call type (£/month) - 2011 - 2016
Table 93 - Historic - BT share of residential call types by traffic volumes - 2002 - 2010
Table 94 - Historic - BT Consumer lines and TV subscribers (million) - 2011 - 2017
Table 95 - Historic - COLT financial data (€ million) - 2006 - 2015
Table 96 - Historic - COLT financial data by business (€ million) - 2013 - 2015
Table 97 - Historic - H3 annualised data ARPU (£/month) - 2009 - 2012
Table 98 - Historic - Mobile subscribers and SIM penetration rate - 1995; 1997; 1999 - 2010
Table 99 - Historic - Mobile retail revenue by service - 2002 - 2017
Table 100 - Historic - Virgin Mobile subscribers - 2005 - 2014
Table 101 - Historic - Average 3G and 4G speeds (Mb/s) - 2014 - 2015
Table 102 - Historic - Broadband take-up by technology - 2007 - 2016
Table 103 - Historic - Average household spend of fixed-voice, mobile and internet services - 2008 - 2016
Table 104 - Historic - Prepaid and contract subscribers - 2002 - 2010
Table 105 - Historic - Mobile market share by operator - 2004 - 2016
Table 106 - Historic - EE's LTE subscribers - 2013 - 2015
Table 107 - Historic - SMS and MMS revenue - 2015 - 2017
Table 108 - Historic - EE subscriber data - 2009 - 2018
Table 109 - Historic - Percentage internet access by dial-up and broadband - 2000 - 2011
Table 110 - Historic - Internet users and penetration - 2000 - 2016
Table 111 - Historic - Fixed-line broadband retail revenue - 2001 - 2015
Table 112 - Historic - Fixed-line broadband subscribers and penetration - 2002 - 2010
Table 113 - Historic - DSL subscribers - 2000 - 2010
Table 114 - Historic - Market share of fixed-line broadband subscribers by provider - 2005 - 2010
Table 115 - Historic - Broadband penetration by technology - 2004 - 2010
Table 116 - Historic - BT retail and wholesale broadband subscribers - 2004 - 2018
Table 117 - Historic - Fixed-line broadband connections by type - 2002 - 2010
Table 118 - Historic - Devices used for internet access, market share - 2013 - 2017
Table 119 - Historic - Internet connectivity type, by household - 2003 - 2016
Table 120 - Historic - BT fibre broadband subscribers - 2014 - 2018
Table 121 - Historic - Change in the number of dedicated mobile broadband subscribers - 2008 - 2010
Table 122 - Historic - Growth in the number of H3's registered subscribers by sector (thousand) - 2008 - 2010
Table 123 - Historic - Development of H3's financial data (£ million) - 2008 - 2010
Table 124 - Historic - Vodafone customer churn - 2007 - 2010

List of Charts

Chart 1 - Europe Telecoms Maturity Index - Market Leaders (top tier)
Chart 2 - Europe Telecoms Maturity Index - Market Challengers (middle tier)
Chart 3 - Europe Telecoms Maturity Index - Market Emergents (bottom tier)
Chart 4 - Overall view - Telecoms Maturity Index vs GDP per Capita
Chart 5 - Europe - mobile subscriber penetration vs mobile broadband penetration
Chart 6 - Scandinavia and Baltics - mobile subscriber penetration vs mobile broadband penetration
Chart 7 - Northern Europe - mobile subscriber penetration vs mobile broadband penetration
Chart 8 - Southern Europe mobile subscriber penetration vs mobile broadband penetration
Chart 9 - Eastern Europe mobile subscriber penetration vs mobile broadband penetration
Chart 10 - Scandinavia and Baltics fixed and mobile broadband penetration
Chart 11 - Northern Europe fixed and mobile broadband penetration
Chart 12 - Southern Europe fixed and mobile broadband penetration
Chart 13 - Eastern Europe fixed and mobile broadband penetration
Chart 14 - Change in telecoms revenue by service - 2012 - 2020
Chart 15 - Change in fixed-line and mobile voice traffic (billion minutes) - 2011 - 2020
Chart 16 - Change in average fixed and mobile call minutes per line - 2013 - 2020
Chart 17 - Change in the proportion of calls made, fixed-line and mobile - 2011 - 2020
Chart 18 - Fixed-line calls and access revenue by main operator - 2010 - 2021
Chart 19 - Change in the average retail household spend on telecoms services - 2011 - 2020
Chart 20 - BT wholesale lines (thousand) - 2016 - 2021
Chart 21 - Change in mobile interconnection traffic - 2010 - 2021
Chart 22 - Growth in mobile voice traffic - 2011 - 2020
Chart 23 - Change in mobile retail revenue by service - 2010 - 2021
Chart 24 - Growth in the number of mobile subscribers and penetration - 2011 - 2026
Chart 25 - Change in the number of mobile connections by type - 2011 - 2020
Chart 26 - Change in the proportion of prepaid and contract subscribers - 2011 - 2020
Chart 27 - Decline in mobile ARPU by contract, prepaid - 2010 - 2020
Chart 28 - Growth in the number of LTE subscribers - 2013 - 2020
Chart 29 - Growth in O2's LTE subscribers and penetration - 2014 - 2019
Chart 30 - Growth in the number of M2M connections - 2010 - 2020
Chart 31 - Growth in the number of O2's IoT/M2M connections - 2014 - 2021
Chart 32 - Development of outgoing mobile voice traffic - 2010 - 2021
Chart 33 - Growth in average mobile data traffic per user - 2011 - 2020
Chart 34 - Growth in contract/prepaid mobile data traffic - 2013 - 2021
Chart 35 - Decline in the volume of SMS and MMS messages sent - 2010 - 2021
Chart 36 - Change in average SMS/MMS traffic per month by contract type - 2010 - 2020
Chart 37 - Growth in the number of active mobile broadband subscribers - 2011 - 2026
Chart 38 - Growth in the number of H3's registered subscribers by sector - 2011 - 2021
Chart 39 - Growth in the number of H3's active subscribers by sector - 2014 - 2021
Chart 40 - Development of H3's financial data - 2011 - 2021
Chart 41- Decline in H3's annualised gross ARPU - 2009 - 2021
Chart 42 - Development of VMed O2's financial data - 2010 - 2021
Chart 43 - Growth in the number of VMed O2's mobile subscribers by type - 2010 - 2021
Chart 44 - Change in VMed O2's annualised mobile ARPU (€ / subscriber / month) - 2010 - 2020
Chart 45 - Development of Vodafone's mobile ARPU (prepaid, contract, blended) - 2010 - 2021
Chart 46 - Vodafone (UK) subscribers and proportion prepaid - 2010 - 2021
Chart 47 - Vodafone (UK) financial data - 2015 - 2021
Chart 48 - Growth in Vodafone's mobile data traffic - 2013 - 2021
Chart 49 - Development of EE's consumer mobile revenue - 2016 - 2022
Chart 50 - Decline in EE's mobile ARPU (Q4) - 2009 - 2021
Chart 51 - Change in the number of Virgin Mobile's mobile subscribers - 2010 - 2021
Chart 52 - Development of Virgin Mobile's revenue - 2010 - 2021
Chart 53 - Growth in the number of fixed-line broadband subscribers and penetration - 2011 - 2026
Chart 54 - Growth in average consumer fixed-line broadband traffic - 2011 - 2020
Chart 55 - Change in the number of fixed-line broadband connections by type (million) - 2011 - 2020
Chart 56 - Growth in the average headline broadband speed - 2010 - 2020
Chart 57 - Change in the proportion of residential broadband connections by speed - 2013 - 2020
Chart 58 - Change in market share of fixed-line broadband subscribers by provider - 2011 - 2020
Chart 59 - Change in the number of superfast broadband subscribers and market share - 2010 - 2020
Chart 60 - Growth in the number of Virgin Media's cable broadband subscribers - 2010 - 2021
Chart 61 - Development of Virgin Media's cable ARPU - 2010 - 2021
Chart 62 - Change in Virgin Media's cable revenue - 2010 - 2021
Chart 63 - Decline in the number of DSL subscribers - 2011 - 2020
Chart 64 - Growth in the number of fibre broadband connections by type - 2013 - 2020
Chart 65 - Change in the number of Openreach's fibre broadband connections (thousand) - 2016 - 2021
Chart 66 - Growth in the number of Vodafone's fixed broadband subscribers - 2011 - 2021
Chart 67 - Change in the number of fixed lines in service and teledensity - 2011 - 2026
Chart 68 - Fixed-voice traffic volume by call type - 2010 - 2021
Chart 69 - Fixed-voice revenue by call type - 2010 - 2021
Chart 70 - BT share of residential call types by traffic volumes - 2011 - 2021
Chart 71 - BT financial data - 2010 - 2022
Chart 72 - BT retail fixed revenue, Consumer and Business divisions (£ million) - 2012 - 2022
Chart 73 - BT revenue by Global Services, Wholesale and Openreach divisions - 2010 - 2022
Chart 74 - Decline of KCom's revenue - 2011 - 2020
Chart 75 - Development of Virgin Media's revenue - 2010 - 2021
Chart 76 - Virgin Media subscribers by sector - 2010 - 2021
Chart 77 - Development of TalkTalk Group's financial data - 2009 - 2021

List of Exhibits

Exhibit 1 - Generalised Market Characteristics by Market Segment
Exhibit 2 - Spectrum available for mobile services
Exhibit 3 - Spectrum awards - 800MHz and 2.6GHz - 2013
Exhibit 4 - Spectrum awards - 2.3GHz, 3.4GHz - April 2018
Exhibit 5 - Spectrum auction results 10GHz - February 2008
Exhibit 6 - 3G licence results - April 2000
Exhibit 7 - 3G licensee and infrastructure suppliers
Exhibit 8 - H3 spectrum concessions
Exhibit 9 - Wireless opportunities using technology and frequencies
Exhibit 10 - Principal submarine cables from the UK
Exhibit 11 - 2Africa submarine cable
Exhibit 12 - 2Africa landing stations

United Kingdom - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Description

Table of Contents

List of Tables

UK telecoms market struggles to find opportunities for growth following another lacklustre year

Key developments:

Companies mentioned in this report:

Table of Contents

Key statistics

Regional European Market Comparison

Country overview

Covid-19 and its impact on the telecom sector

Telecommunications market

Regulatory environment

Mobile market

Fixed-line broadband market

Fixed network market

Telecommunications infrastructure

Appendix - Historic data

Glossary of abbreviations

Related reports

List of Tables

List of Charts

List of Exhibits