Broadband takes off in Britain

Record numbers of UK households and businesses are signing up for broadband Internet services, British telecoms regulator Oftel announced today.

Almost 30,000 subscribers a week are switching to broadband, taking the total number in the UK to more than 1.4 million, latest industry figures show.

When Oftel announced the number of homes and business with broadband had reached 500,000 last May, new subscriptions were running at around 20,000 a week.

Separate research conducted by Oftel found a big rise in the number of people aware of the benefits of broadband.

Last February 32% of people already connected to the Internet, but not with a broadband connection, knew about the new technology.

In the same survey of just over 2,300 users last November the figure had risen to 70%.

Around 42% of UK households are connected to the Internet – either with a standard or broadband connection.

David Edmonds, director general of telecommunications, said: “Broadband has really taken off in the UK with almost 30,000 consumers a week signing up for broadband services.”

Among the advantages of broadband are connection speeds to the Internet up to 40 times faster than a standard connection.

Users are also permanently connected, meaning their computer does not need to dial-up each time they wish to log on.