2003 Review of the Year: Broadband Britain

Was it 150, 250, 700? Which number triggered your upgrade so that you could join Broadband Britain in 2003?

Even if your exchange was upgraded, can you get a service worthy of being called broadband?

After spending the second half of 2002 waiting for hundreds of other users of their local telephone exchange to register their interest for DSL broadband, in 2003 many frustrated potential BT broadband customers became actual BT broadband customers.

But it wasn't the best of starts for BT in 2003. Three days in and hundreds of users were cut off. Things improved when prices were cut again later in January and not just by BT. By the end of the year, three million subscribers had joined Broadband Britain.

Of course, as well as BT, other ISPs were jostling to provide wholesale services, mostly for business customers, that looked to compete on price and by offering superior bandwidth.

BT's rivals had tried to pile the pressure on BT in order to ensure a level(er) playing field. This year, the competition will hot up even more.

Cable broadband also marched forward, often offering a technological edge and managing to persuade more of its existing dial-up subscribers to upgrade.

2003 was a year of firsts. Broadband on an aeroplane and watching Johnny Wilkinson drop goals (but not packets) on the other side of the world.

There was even something called midband, although it didn't amount to much. Rather like the government's wireless auctions for the 3.4GHz spectrum.

But if you're still waiting for BT to upgrade your exchange, please accept my commiserations. At least BT is beginning to look serious about connecting all the country, whether wires are involved or not.

Of course, if you can't wait or won't wait you might want to ask around and see whether you have enough like-minded souls nearby to copy the villagers of West Haddon, who decided that some community DIY was in order.

The government will even help nowadays, which is more than it was said to be contributing earlier in the year.

So, if 2003 was the year you became part of Broadband Britain, then welcome to the world of always-on, high-speed internet access. Just don't forget to secure that connection now.