Cable providers compete with those offering broadband through telephone wires – namely BT and those that re-sell BT's wholesale ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) service.
In a joint statement, NTL and Telewest said that over one million homes across the UK are enjoying the benefits of fast, always on, internet access via cable.
E-commerce Minister Stephen Timms said:
"It was just 6 months ago that the UK tipped the 1 million broadband subscriptions mark. I am delighted that in this short time this has become 1 million connections via cable alone. This is testament to the fiercely competitive market that is fast emerging in the UK, ensuring customer choice, value for money and quality of service.”
However, there is a touch of scepticism from observers. IT news site TheRegister.co.uk described the news as “piffle.” BT was more circumspect, with a spokesman telling the BBC, "This is a tremendous achievement though it'd be really lovely if NTL could just remind us how many 128k 'broadband' subscribers they've got”.
Last month the Advertising Standards Authority decided that a “High Speed Broadband Internet” package advertised by NTL, and running at only 128kbps, was misleading. It considered that most consumers would understand broadband to mean a service offering upwards of 500 kbps, and therefore the claim "broadband", without qualification, was likely to mislead.
Oftel, in its recent Internet and Broadband brief, described the term “broadband” as “higher bandwidth, always-on services, offering data rates of 128 kbps and above,” but goes on the say that “This definition gives Oftel data that is comparable with broadband take-up figures published by other countries in Europe.” According to Reuters the lower speed, cheaper service is very popular throughout the continent.
Oftel reports that from May this year the disputed NTL service will be upgraded to run at a speed of 150kbps.
