BT signs up four millionth broadband customer

BT Retail today announced that it has become the first UK broadband player to sign up four million customers.

Over the past five years, the communications giant has been adding a new customer every forty seconds, equating to more than 2,000 customers a day. The company's broadband achievements have also been aided by its acquisition of Plusnet in 2006, which pushed around 190,000 customers its way overnight.

The success comes despite growing frustration from consumers over the introduction of ADSL max, traffic shaping and line throttling which have resulted in many UK customers not getting the broadband speeds they pay for.

"As an industry we need to make it clearer what we mean by these terms, so that our customers know exactly what we mean by 'up to 8mb'," said a BT Retail spokesperson. "We will never be the cheapest [broadband provider] but we offer a good variety of services and add-ons our customers seem to like."

The broadband market has boomed in recent years with the latest Ofcom report noting that 53 per cent of UK homes had a broadband line, equating to roughly 15 million connections.

"Four million customers is a great achievement in such a short time. Broadband has proved to be one of the most popular new services ever seen. It is already delivering next generation television, inclusive free phone calls in High Definition sound and great value mobile calls," said BT Retail chief executive Ian Livingston.

"Broadband can provide so many more services than just internet surfing and it has become central to many people's lives and businesses. Customers want to take advantage of the potential of broadband and need a high quality, reliable service."

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