The UK now has over half a million broadband connections.

Oftel welcomed this important milestone at the beginning of May, when there were 211,000 ADSL connections and 328,000 cable modem connections.

This figure represents 54 per cent growth since the beginning of 2002.

As connections are running at 20,000 per week, numbers have now climbed further.

The UK has more competition in broadband services than many European countries. Where many consumers in Europe rely on the incumbent for broadband services, UK consumers are choosing from a number of different networks and service providers.

In the future, emerging technologies such as satellite, fixed wireless and 3G mobile phones will mean an increasing number of networks competing to deliver broadband services.