Telewest turns its back on the local loop

The operator, who controls a third of the UK cable market, said today it had taken a strategic decision to concentrate on its own cable network.

A spokeswoman said: "We now have 220,000 digital customers, of whom 3,000 have high-speed digital access. We are very pleased with the success of our high-speed internet access service, blueyonder."

Telewest expects to save around £1bn in investment through concentrating on selling services solely over its own lines, rather than also selling over BT's. It claims the installation of fibre connections will provide a better and faster service than BT's copper lines.

Major cable operator NTL has tried ADSL services over BT lines, but it too has decided to sell only over its own network. A spokeswoman said: "We have a stable modem and retention rates on using our DSL service are high."

By Geoffrey Davies