Blueyonder announces 250,000 subscribers

In need of some festive cheer, Telewest has announced that it is ending 2002 with a quarter of a million broadband internet subscribers.

The announcement comes just a month after the cable operator revealed it had 235,000 Blueyonder broadband subscribers, at the unveiling of its third quarter results. Those results showed strong growth in Telewest's broadband internet business, despite a net disconnection rate being present in its consumer division figures. The company is continuing to bolster its broadband internet service, with recently announced supported trials of Xbox Live - which will no doubt appeal to gamers willing to spend a bit more money in return for cable's low latency compared to traditional dial-up connection - and the selling of Blueyonder broadband installation packs in Carphone Warehouse stores around the country.

Ten percent of Telewest's 250,000 broadband internet customers are taking the company's higher-speed... and perhaps more importantly for Telewest's balance sheet, higher-priced 1Mbps service.

Gavin Patterson, managing director at Telewest Broadband said: "This year, we've been concentrating on getting the overall service quality and customer experience right and it's really paid off."