Jansen: Leaving other broadband players behind

"We intend to ask the triallists how much they are willing to pay," said a spokesperson for Telewest.

"NTL's one megabit service is �49 a month and we would like to see ours quite a bit lower to be aimed at a mainstream consumer audience."

According to Telewest's Managing Director Philip Jansen the service will set another benchmark for internet services in the UK.

"The trial will help us deliver a service that leaves ADSL providers dead in their copper tracks," he said.

How fast is fast?

But Ovum analyst Tim Johnson is sceptical that people will actually get the blueyonder service at the optimum one megabit speed.

"If you get a large number of users then the speed will drop and there will be bottlenecks higher up in the network," he said.

"Before I got the service I would ask Telewest if I could get one megabit for downloading streaming media - say from the BBC site - and I have a feeling Telewest couldn't guarantee that. You might be better off with just half a megabit."

Around half a million UK homes and businesses currently have a broadband connection.

Cable operators Telewest and NTL have around 280,000 customers, with ADSL providers trailing with 190,000 connections.