Thus gets fat on broadband success

NEWS Britain's broadband boom has paid dividends for Thus, which has seen a 400 per cent jump in its broadband user base over the last 12 months. In its preliminary financial results for the 12 months to 31 March 2003 the telco explained that the development of broadband services helped it to increase the turnover of its internet division by 10 per cent, to £90.3m. In its results statement the company said: "Broadband customers grew five-fold to 25,000, attracted by the wide range of service options on offer, improved pricing and targeted marketing promotions to business customers under the Demon brand." One key move made by Thus in the last year was to launch broadband services that offered a lower contention ratio than standard products. Instead of sharing the potential bandwidth with up to 49 other users who are also connected to the same local telephone exchange, customers could have exclusive use of all the available bandwidth at all times, or just share it with up to four other users. Such low-contention services are usually popular with gamers, or users who regularly video-conference or download very large files. According to Thus, its turnover from broadband and related services has now grown to the same level as that of "traditional narrowband access and termination" services. It's not clear what this level is, though, as the £90.3m internet turnover contains several other activities such as hosting. Thus's results were generally well received by the city. Its total turnover for the 12 months to 31 March 2003 rose nine percent to £291.2mn, resulting in a pre-tax loss of £58.8m - significantly better than its £104m loss the previous year. Graeme Wearden writes for ZDNet.co.uk