BT offers free ADSL...

BT has contacted 850,000 users of its unmetered dial-up access services offering them free DSL upgrades at a saving of £150.

The offer is only available to people who were subscribers to the BTopenworld Anytime and BTopenworld for BT Surf customers at midnight on 30 September.

They will have to place an order for the Home 500 product by the end of October, arrange the installation before the end of November and agree to a minimum service time of 12 months.

The email has been sent to thousands of subscribers, many of whom are heavy users whose excessive surfing habits have strained the capacity of BT's dial-up networks.

Users who accept this offer will enjoy much higher data rates, but still end up paying more, as the monthly charge for DSL is £39.99, compared to the £14.99 for BTopenworld Anytime.

Eligible customers who signed up for BT's earlier half-price installation will be able to claim a refund of their installation fee.

The company wanted to announce the offer two weeks ago, but was unable to because of a delay in obtaining approval from the regulator, a BT spokesman said.

BT has also cut its prices for ISDN services, effective from 1 November. The standard price falls from £27 to £24, and the prices of other options are also being cut.

However, the cost of ISDN installation has been increased from £49.50 to £74.99, effective immediately.

The news comes as another survey, this time from NetValue, places Britain near the bottom of the broadband league, at seventh place in a group of eight European countries.

The league is led by Sweden and Denmark, with over 13 per cent of homes equipped with broadband internet access. Britain has a mere 2.3 per cent, beating only Italy where less than one per cent of homes are broadband enabled.