Broadband Britain Is Underway
The Government’s vision of Broadband Britain is becoming a reality, according to a report from Oftel which shows that the UK now has over half a million high-speed internet connections.
Figures collected from UK network operators show that broadband internet access is growing at a rate of 20,000 new connections a week and according to Oftel, the demand for high-speed internet access is greater than that for mobile phones and dial-up internet services when they were first introduced.
The Government’s E-commerce Minister, Douglas Alexander, said: “The milestone of half a million connections represents a 54% increase since the beginning of 2002. Of course there is more to do, but the work of building broadband Britain is underway.”
David Edmonds, Oftel’s director general of telecommunications, added: “The current data does not include the cable operators connections for March and April, so the actual figure is significantly more.”
He continued: “I am confident that more internet users will take up high-speed broadband as the range of services increases and prices fall. Oftel has promoted competition between different networks and different service providers to ensure that consumers get a wide range of choices and prices.”
A significant number of initiatives have been launched over the last few months to increase the uptake of broadband services in the UK. BT has been at the forefront of the drive and last week announced the launch of a “no frills” broadband product, which it hopes will result in 500,000 additional connections by summer 2003 (see BT’s ‘No Frills’ Service Ups Broadband Stakes). Telewest is offering a three month broadband “tester” for less than the average cost per month of dial-up internet (see Telewest Cuts Entry Price For Broadband) and Freeserve and NTL have also unveiled incentives to encourage users to access the internet via high-speed connections (see NTL Unveils UK’s Fastest Internet Service).
Oftel: 020 7634 8700 www.oftel.co.uk
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