Oftel has today issued its latest broadband brief, which covers all the latest coverage statistics and industry changes. The regulator estimates that there are now more than two million broadband users in the UK. The data is accurate for the period until the end of May 2003:

Broadband access (as at end May 2003)
Total broadband subscribers = Over 2.05 million

Cable modems:
End-users = Over 1 million
Availability = 45% of UK homes and businesses

DSL:
End-users = Over 1 million
BT exchanges DSL-enabled = 1,322
Availability = 69% of UK homes and businesses
Number of ISPs offering ADSL services = 100+

Clearly Oftel has added further confusion to the mix by choosing to include NTLs 128Kbps service as broadband; otherwise cable would not have accumulated over one million users.

The regulator estimates that 17% of UK homes now use broadband to access the Internet, which is up from 13% during February 2003.

Sadly Oftel has failed to update its narrowband access statistics; although quite why they're included in a broadband brief isn't clear. Point of reference perhaps? Finally there's also a small reference to Midband:

On 30 April 2003, BT announced pricing and availability details for its new high-speed Internet service, BT Midband. The Midband service was launched on 1 June and is available to 97% of the UK population. The BT Midband service is provided over Home Highway [BT Midband] lines. In addition, from June 2003, there will also be a Business Midband variant provided over Business Highway / ISDN2/2e lines.

New BT Midband customers will pay a flat-rate monthly payment of £35 - this includes line rental and 150 hours per month at 64 kbps, or the equivalent of 75 hours at 128 kbps. Customers can carry forward a maximum of 50 unused hours from the previous month.