BT has continued to increase its share of the UK broadband market despite the slew of rival ISPs offering competitive deals, new data has revealed.

According to Ofcom's latest telecommunications market data tables, BT commanded 27.2 per cent of the UK's broadband connections at the end of the second quarter of last year.

The figure represents growth of 1.3 per cent from the preceding quarter - and takes the ISP's total subscriber numbers to 4,074,000.

Growth was also noted for Virgin Media's cable network, which grew from 3,192,000 to 3,308,000 users during the period - while unbundled LLU-based DSL broadband connections also increased.

However, wholesale DSL lines (excluding LLU) fell from 5,017,000 to 4,375,000.

Analysts have expressed surprise at the growth of BT's market share on the grounds that competition in the UK market has seen the introduction of a raft of keenly priced broadband offerings that might have been expected to tempt customers away from the country's largest ISP.