BT Claims High-Speed Internet Access Is Growing Fast
Broadband Britain is fast becoming a reality with the take up of high-speed internet services continuing to grow at a rapid pace, according the latest figures released by BT Group yesterday.
The telecoms giant said that the third quarter of this year had been its best on record with 600,000 new broadband connections being made. This took BT Wholesale’s user base to 3.3 million, including customers of other services that use the network to access their own customers.
BT said its own internet services, run under the BT Retail banner, saw their share of net additions rise from 29% to 30%, equal to around 1.29 million customers. However, BT chairman Sir Christopher Bland has reportedly warned Ofcom that pricing of broadband services threatened the company’s long-term investment plans.
Bland is calling on Ofcom to allow it to lower the cost of its main wholesale broadband product to bring it inline with lows costs for so-called ‘local loop unbundling, which is an alternative method of connecting homes to high-speed broadband services.
BT Retail uses the more expensive wholesale product, limiting its ability to compete with the growing number of rivals investing in local loop unbundling. BT Retail boss Pierre Danon is reportedly demanding money from the BT board to allow him to invest in this area of the business.
BT is also believed in advanced talks with a number of broadcasters, including BSkyB, ITV and the BBC to discuss the possibility of delivering popular television programmes over high-speed internet connections. The company has plans to break in to the pay-per-view market with the launch of a new BT-branded digital television and internet service (see BT In Talks To Offer Advanced Freeview).
BT: 0207 469 2337 www.btplc.co.uk
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