2012 is expected to be a big year for growth in broadband Internet use in the UK. We have the Olympics, para Olympics, the Queens Diamond Jubilee, Wimbledon and the West Indies, Aussies and South Africa over on cricket tour (if I was them I’d be avoiding this country next summer but hey…). Oh and let’s not forget the European football championships from 8th June til 1st July. England qualified I believe?! 🙂
There is more sport but by far the biggest Internet traffic news item for 2012 is that Netflix is coming to the UK. For the uninitiated, Netflix is a movie screening service in the USA that accounts for something like a quarter of all Internet traffic in that country.
At LINX75 today the launch was a particular subject of discussion – these things are often all network operators talk about. It affects capacity planning. Word has it the expected UK launch date is 9th January 2012 with a press event planned at the Cavendish Hotel in London. The launch in Ireland should follow one day later on the 10th.
Netflix is likely to have more of an effect on consumer ISPs than those serving the business market although no ISP will remain untouched. Considering that one of the biggest influencers on broadband costs is bandwidth it will be interesting to see what happens to average broadband pricing.
If Netflix is successful then the early January launch should have a significant impact on Internet usage habits in the UK. It will represent a step function rather than the series of spikes normally associated with one off events (though these one off events seem to be merging into one continuous one off event!) My guess is that all this online streaming is also going to act as an accelerator for FTTC signups.
Life in this industry continues to be full of interest and excitement.
2 replies on “Netflix UK Launch Planned for 9th January, 2012 – Another Injection of Broadband Internet Growth”
It is an interesting point Tref, I haven’t looked at our Internet usage at home but we recently subscribed to LoveFilm which gives you the option to stream films to your Laptop/iPad or Sony PS3. Equally we are looking at fitting an Apple TV over Christmas. As a result we have ditched Sky Movies and no longer rack up our Sky bill with Box Office costs but those services never affected my bandwidth. In the same period I have installed LiveDrive (like Dropbox but with more space for the money) and backed up 103Gb of content, installed IP CCTV at home that I can view over the net and have taken to talking to my kids over FaceTime while they are abroad. All of which impacts my ISP quite heavily I guess.
P.S. This is also creating an opening for a really solid, simple to use, family friendly, wireless LAN company to enter the industry. I am lucky enough to be semi-technical but getting some of the above working securely and stably was not an easy task!
Why can’t BT put FTTC in areas Virgin hasn’t touched and make more money?
In an area where both are available your going to go with Virgin 100mb instead of BT 40mb