BT heralds broadband Britain

BRITISH TELECOMS, otherwise known as BT will soon be reaching ten million broadband connected homes in the UK - that's twice the company's initial 2002 target of five million connectees by the end of '06.

Most viewed the original target of five million connections as overly ambitious, since at the time there were less than 150,000 DSL connections, with a broadband availability of 66%, which has rocketed up to 99.8%.

The connections are shared between BT Wholesale and Openreach, BT Wholesale supplying fast internet to around 8.7 million customers while Openreach supplies over 1.3 million lines to customers through local loop unbundlers, says BT. The company proudly boasts that each of these ten million punters rings in cash for BT.

Just over 13 million folks in the UK use broadband, says BT, making the ten million an impressive share of the market. The BT Group expects things to only get better, too: Ben Verwaayen, chief BT executive, said that "2007 is beginning with broadband firmly established at the heart of the UK economy, helping businesses to compete and enrich people's lives."

BT has more plans for broadband too, with its 21st Century Network scheme being introduced in the not-so-distant future. The 21st Century Network means better speed for all sorts of places in the UK, and not just in the city centres - speeds of 24Mb/s are expected to be available all over the UK by January 2008. µ