Broadband News

Breaking Broadband Barriers

(05-01-07) - Breaking Broadband Sign up Barriers - BT has announced that it will break the barrier of 10 million customers this week, far outreaching its target of five million customers by the end of 2006.

Set in April 2002, at a time when there were less that 150,000 ADSL connections, the target of five million was seen as over-ambitious at a time when it couldn’t be conceived just how the broadband market would grow.

The 10 million connections span both BT Wholesale and Openreach. 8.7 million of these are provided via BT Wholesale to internet service providers such as AOL, Madasafish and Toucan. 1.3 million are “unbundled” lines, further removing BT from the equation. Despite this, BT is involved at some level with all 10 million connections.

BT added that the UK broadband industry has become one of the fastest growing markets, taking over from televisions, mobile phones and CD players, and this is only set to increase with the rollout of BT’s 21st Century Network in 2008, which will enable speeds of up to 24Mb.

Ben Verwaayen, Chief Executive of BT Group, said: “2007 is beginning with broadband firmly established at the heart of the UK economy, helping businesses to compete and enriching people’s lives. The UK now has over 200 service providers making it the most competitive broadband market in the world. That means fantastic choice and value for consumers, and a constant stream of new and innovative applications.”

Chris Eagle, BroadbandChoices Commercial Manager, warned: “ISPs need to think carefully about how they market themselves. Too many customers expect an 8Mb connection without understanding that this is unrealistic in the case of most households as the speed decreases the further the customer’s connection is from their local exchange.”