BT racks up five million broadband users

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BT will connect its five millionth wholesale broadband customer 12 months ahead of its own target.

The telco announced on Monday that it is on the brink of hitting the five million milestone this week, calling it a "massive achievement" for the whole UK telecoms industry.

"The momentum of broadband is continuing to build," said Ben Verwaayen, BT chief executive, in a statement. "The latest million connections have come in just four months, and BT is connecting a customer every ten seconds"

These five million customers are shared between over two hundred Internet service providers, according to BT, which says it currently has about 35 percent of the retail market.

Hitting the five million figure this year is something of a personal triumph for Verwaayen, who is widely credited with sparking the UK's broadband boom when he slashed BT's wholesale prices soon after joining the company in 2002. Verwaayen's declaration in 2003 that BT wanted to reach the five million target by the summer of 2006 left some BT insiders concerned that he could have set the telco an impossible task, but broadband take-up has surpassed even the most optimistic predictions since.

Talkback

Hardly surpirising BT is succeeding given the woeful inadequacy of NTLs' customer servies.

via Facebook 4 April, 2005 13:51
Reply

Or is it to do with the fact that the vast majority of broadband subscribers just don't live in a cable operators area?

Although I have heard just how cr*p the cable operators customer service can be!

via Facebook 4 April, 2005 16:40
Reply

I got no problems getting my new broadband connection up (Tiscali). Everything was up and running a week early. BT gave me a pathetic service when I was with them on dial-up so I was never going to use them for Broadband.

via Facebook 4 April, 2005 17:43
Reply

What about the customers that BT will NOT give Broadband to even when they advertised they would - ask the people who live in the villages along the south bank of the Humber who should have received ADSL on 9th March and now have to wait till BT feel like installing it what they think of BT

via Facebook 5 April, 2005 17:11
Reply

Just how many B/band connections, not users are thier in the uk, in relation to the number of house holds and businesses.

I used cable for the last two years, mainly because BT b/band was too expensive at the time, thier competitions forced them become a lot more competitive.

via Facebook 21 April, 2005 22:53
Reply

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