UK telco BT has passed the milestone of 15mn customers for its broadband services, with more than 5mn of those being retail connections (and the rest being wholesale connections).

The telco estimates that, when taking into account the broadband customers served by cable operator Virgin Media, the UK now has more than 19mn premises receiving broadband, equivalent to 71% of UK households, compared with just 35% in 2005. 

Approximately 99% of homes in the UK now have access to broadband, according to BT, which also states that prices are low in the UK thanks to a "very competitive market" in which BT has a retail market share of approximately 27%.

“Broadband Britain has been a success story with widespread availability, low prices and high take up," said Olivia Garfield, Strategy Director at BT.  "People were sceptical when BT backed broadband in 2002 but the figures speak for themselves with the vast majority of new customers choosing broadband over BT’s network rather than alternative ones where prices are far higher."

Ms. Garfield also stated that BT is investing a further GB£ 2.5bn (US 3.83bn) in rolling out fibre-based broadband connections to two-thirds of the UK, which is expected to be completed by 2015.

BT had reached 481,000 subscribers for its hybrid DTT+IPTV service 'BT Vision' by the end of the second quarter of this year, adding 14,000 customers in the three month period.