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An assessment of the UK’s wide area network (WAN) market finds it to be a highly competitive enabler of enterprise and public sector activities, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Robert Pritchard, Senior Technology Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “While BT remains the largest provider of data WAN services in the UK, it faces stiff competition from challengers large and small.

“Ongoing consolidation of service providers and the growing impact of significant infrastructure investment means that UK public limited companies (plc) will continue to benefit from one of the most competitive markets in the world, with ever faster and more flexible services giving enterprises the ability to respond to their changing needs with greater agility.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated existing trends in work practices, vastly increasing the use of conferencing and remote working, as well as the transition to cloud-based computing and application services – broadly characterized as ‘hybrid working’.

Pritchard continues: “Naturally, there are significant challenges such as security and some notable ‘not-spots’ where slow or zero connectivity inhibits connectivity – but these are being addressed over time both by commercially driven and government-sponsored infrastructure rollouts.

“Both the country and its service providers have adapted well to the challenges presented by the pandemic. Enterprises across the UK can look forward to the lifeblood of their activities – data WANs – delivering ever faster, more flexible and reliable capabilities to underpin their businesses.”