In a quarter of low growth and little innovation there was not much change in market positions.

• Sky continues as the rising star, adding 1.1% market share to reach 8.9%.
• Carphone Warehouse made a small gain and Tiscali reversed the trend of the past 18 months to gain as well.

The numbers suggest that the broadband market is quite robust in the face of the economic slowdown.

• A gain of 590,000 is closely in line with Point Topic’s forecasts for the current half year, which are based mainly on projections about migration from dial-up and the rate at which non-user households are expected to take up internet access.
• Actual growth is closely in line with these expectations so it is not necessary to blame the economic situation for the decline.