UK tops for broadband growth

More broadband connections are being installed in the UK than anywhere else in the world, according to new data from analysis firm, TopicPoint.

Globally, there are now over 164 million broadband lines. But nowhere is the take up of broadband as great as in the UK, which achieved growth of 16.5 per cent between quarter four of 2004 and quarter two of 2005. This means there are now over a million extra broadband connections in the UK since the end of 2004. France was the only other world leading nation to manage broadband growth in excess of 10 per cent during the same period.

Although the UK has topped the world in adding new broadband connections, the country is still deeply in the shadow of South Korea which boasts an incredible 25 broadband connections per 100 head of population.

In a separate, but not wholly unrelated, development comes news that sweaty, stressed out London office workers are choosing to work from home using a broadband connection rather than face commuting. Who knows, could the next logical step be for these workers to sell up and move to the Highlands to work from a home office instead of the built-up commuter belts? Or, perhaps, for the jobs to move to remote workers already based in the HIE area?

Either way, the outcome may not best please Telewest Business, the cable company that produced the statistics. According to Telewest Business, there has been a massive increase in the first half of 2005 in remote working, a development that won’t come as a surprise to many in the Highlands and Islands area who have been forecasting – and enjoying - the employment potential of high speed connectivity for a number of years.

Telewest Business assert that an increasing number of London firms have concluded they will get better productivity from staff by offering home and remote working rather than have their workforce face an arduous and stressful commute to and from the office each day.

Philip Stewart, Telewest Business regional head of business services for London and the South East, said a recent survey of senior IT decision makers in the capital had pinpointed remote working as a key spending area in 2005.

He commented: “With stress levels rising along with the temperature, it is no wonder that people feel they can get more done working from home. Taking away the sweaty commute and stuffy office, and replacing them with the comfort of your own home and Wimbledon or The Ashes on the radio will make for a happier workforce, and a happier workforce inevitably means a more productive one.

“If even more London firms embraced flexible working there would be less people in the office, freeing up building space, and there would be less congestion and traffic in the capital all round. Technology is driving a wholesale shift in working patterns, and with exorbitant prices for office space in central London, ever-increasing public transport problems and a desire for a greater work/life balance, home working makes sense for all concerned.”

Now, doesn’t all that sound familiar? The age of the cyber-crofter is here.