Cable and phone access battle it out for customers

One million people are now connected to fast net services via cable, according to the UK's two cable firms.

This puts the technology slightly ahead of ADSL - connections via the phone line - as the two camps battle it out for broadband supremacy.

Telewest's and NTL's celebrations may be short-lived as analysts predict ADSL will win out in the long term and others question just how fast the connections offered by NTL really are.

Most customers enjoy speeds of up to 10 times faster than traditional dial-up, but an undisclosed number of NTL's subscribers are connected to a service just three times faster than traditional dial-up access.

What is broadband?

It could well be part of NTL's broadband strategy to get people on at a cheap price point and then it is easy to upgrade them, Ian Fogg, Jupiter Research

Some industry insiders have argued that this 128k service is not true broadband and should therefore not be included in statistics of broadband take-up.

The Advertising Standards Authority recently ruled that NTL was misleading customers by advertising its slower service as broadband.

Telecoms watchdog Oftel also seems ambivalent about what really constitutes broadband.

While officially recognising the technology needs to be at speeds of 256k or above, it allows NTL's service to be included in statistics in order to keep in line with other European countries.

These cheaper, slower services are proving popular both in the UK and on the continent.

This is a tremendous achievement though it'd be really lovely if NTL could just remind us how many 128k 'broadband' subscribers they've got BT spokesman

"It could well be part of NTL's broadband strategy to get people on at a cheap price point and then it is easy to upgrade them," said Jupiter Research analyst Ian Fogg.

For people just wanting to access the internet and e-mail more quickly, a 128k service is perfectly adequate he said, although it is not suitable for people wanting to download music or video files.

War of words

Although ADSL is "slightly lagging" cable at the moment, Jupiter Research predicts it will overtake cable in the near future.

This is due mainly to the much wider coverage ADSL enjoys across the UK and the fact that the cable firms have limited funds to invest in rolling out cable to new homes.

BT has been among those unconvinced by the latest cable figures.

"This is a tremendous achievement though it'd be really lovely if NTL could just remind us how many 128k 'broadband' subscribers they've got," said a BT spokesman.

"They seem to keep mislaying the paperwork or something," he added.

BT is about to launch its own stepping stone to broadband for those that live outside of areas that are ADSL-enabled.

The much-anticipated midband service is expected to cost �35 a month and lacks many of the advantages of broadband.

"It will not be always-on, it will be slower than the NTL product and there will be no easy way to upgrade," said Mr Fogg.

Only people living in ADSL black spots, such as the Welsh borders and Scottish highlands are likely to be interested in the service, he added.