DC09-406 December 21, 2009
BT breaks the 5 million barrier for broadband customers
BT has become the first UK internet service provider to pass the 5m customer mark, cementing its position as the nation’s number one.
BT Retail has been continuing to rack up strong growth in broadband in recent quarters and passed the 5m milestone on December 9.
The lucky customer who signed up to be the five-million woman was chip shop worker Elizabeth Patterson of East Kilbride, Glasgow. She has won a luxury trip to Vancouver to watch the Winter Olympics, including the closing ceremony. BT is the official communications partner for the London 2012 Olympics.
Despite more and more people now relying on broadband, there’s no sign of a let-up in the pace of Consumer and Business customers signing up for high speed internet access. In fact, BT clocked up the final one million in little over two years.
John Petter, managing director of BT’s Consumer division, said: “We are thrilled to have passed the 5 million mark and it’s now full speed ahead for 6 million.
“Broadband has the ability to transform people’s lives and the fact that we are still showing strong take-up when there are more than 14m ADSL broadband customers in the UK is testament to the unique benefits of being connected.
“The UK’s intensely competitive market for broadband has meant that UK customers have enjoyed superb innovation and low prices. There is more to come, as we believe bringing the content of things like iPlayer and ITVPlayer to the TV set via broadband is going to have a transformational effect when we launch Project Canvas with our partners next year.”
As recently as 2002, broadband was in its infancy. The UK lagged the world, there was little availability and there were only 135,000 ADSL broadband connections. BT set ambitious targets for broadband growth and invested billions of pounds rolling out broadband to virtually all of its 5,500 exchanges and marketing the benefits to customers. This change of strategy meant that Broadband Britain was born.
As a result, broadband is available at exchanges serving 99 per cent of the UK population. The company is also spending £1.5bn laying fibre past 10m homes – 40 per cent of the UK – by 2012.
Winner Elizabeth, 42, who has two children, said: “I am really excited to have won this prize, as I have never been to Canada before. I decided to sign up for broadband so that I could shop online for Christmas presents and so that my son Jamie, who is 11, can use the internet to help with his homework. ”
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