Fibre prices on the rise

Some interesting analysis from Point Topic has shown that the price per Mb for fibre based broadband services is slowly rising as the limited availability and good value for money of such services means they can demand more.

Conversely, as you would expect, the price of DSL and cable based broadband services worldwide is trending down - despite prices of entry level services going up in many cases. This is due to speed increases - at least in terms of headline speeds anyway, which (as we know all too well) vary wildly when it comes to DSL based on the distance from the local exchange.Point Topic's Fiona Vanier:

"Competition between operators and across the technologies is continuing the downward pressure on DSL and cable pricing per megabit. Fiber however doesn't have to work quite so hard. Partly because it's a relative newcomer in many markets but even where it's established FTTx offers such good value for money, on this measure at least, that it has some breathing space.

Operators have overall been raising prices of the entry level services they offer in the last few months, particularly for DSL. They have achieved an overall reduction in the price per megabit by increasing speeds or at least the headline speeds they quote for the services.

It should be noted these calculations are based on the advertised speed and not what the consumer actually experiences. A number of factors can reduce the bandwidth available, contention being a leading example, so the drop in bandwidth costs may not be as dramatic as the raw data suggests."