Top 10 Broadband providers

Point Topic have released figures about the number of broadband lines in the UK, BT lead the pack with almost 2.5m customers, followed by NTL (1.7m) and AOL (1.3m).

Company Q4 2005 Q1 2006
BT Retail 2229 2481
NTL 1625 1726
AOL 1150 1300
Telewest 1005 1096
Tiscali 934 1085
Wanadoo 906 986
Pipex 283 311
PlusNet 176 194
Virgin.net 167 193
Tesco 120 132
Others 1218 1227
Total 9813 10730

These figures don't take into account the NTL/Telewest merger which puts them squarely in the lead with a combined number of nearly 3m ahead of BT's 2.5m.

They also don't take into account Carphone Warehouse, who took on 340,000 broadband customers as part of their TalkTalk service in the first month or so.

Wandadoo (now Orange) will also likely jump significantly as they now offer free broadband with any Orange mobile package over £30/month.

It looks like they'll only be a few operators left in the near future with other providers being forced to sell-out to to the bigger players as margins erode and more bundle offerings come into play.

There will always be BT, but NTL/Telewest still have large numbers of customers and with the purchase of Virgin Mobile can offer a quad play (voice, tv, internet and mobile - so they have the potential to stay ahead of the game), but Carphone Warehouse shouldn't be forgotten and Orange are making a big push.

In 5 years times, don't bet on many other telecoms providers being left in the game.