Re:Viewing 2002 - A year in broadband (Part 3)

NEWS A third broadband milestone for the year was announced in November, with BT claiming it had hit 500,000 subscribers for its own services (see http://www.silicon.com/a56596 for more) - services from cable companies NTL and Telewest made up most of the remaining broadband connections. The telco also pledged to DSL-enable one exchange per day in a bid to speed up the roll up of broadband across Britain (http://www.silicon.com/a56472 ). Following on from these two positive announcements December also brought some Christmas cheer on the broadband front. First up was news of broadband price cuts. BT Wholesale announced plans to halve the installation cost of several of its broadband products in early 2003. These products are resold by over 100 ISPs in the UK, and early indications are that the savings will be passed on to customers (see http://www.silicon.com/a56799 for more). And finally, to end the year on a high point, came BT's announcement that it plans to speed up the process of updating exchanges and remove some of the pointless layers of administration from its trigger level scheme (see http://www.silicon.com/a56883 for more). So 2002 wasn't the year when Broadband Britain became a reality but it was a year when much of the groundwork was done to ensure 2003 will see the UK do more to improve its position.