Having managed to gain 1 million broadband customers, the UKs largest cable operator, NTL, has now announced strong results for the three months and year ended December 31st 2003. On top of that they're also expanding their wireless trials in Milton Keynes.

Overall NTL used the last quarter of 2003 to add an additional 58,400 customers (2.87m total). For the same period the number of broadband users rose by 84,600 to 949,200. Interestingly 43,000 customers have also signed up to their new "Broadband Plus" content service.

Typically NTL now has a right to be rather pleased with itself and is forecasting a 25 to 35% growth for 2004. The operator is also set to expand its small-scale broadband wireless network in Milton Keynes by upgrading the base station to cover a 10km radius.

The ZDNet item goes into more detail:

The wireless service will be operated on a trial basis at first, costing £24.99 per month for a 600-kilobit-per-second (Kbps) link. There are several hundred places available for local people who want to take part. If the trial -- which uses the 10GHz band of the radio spectrum -- is a success, it's likely that NTL will move to full commercial deployment.

Wireless is seen as a vital part of the challenge of making broadband universally available in Britain, so NTL's decision to extend its Milton Keynes service is significant for a city where only around 85 percent of people can get broadband at present.

NTL is also planning a further debt refinancing deal worth £2.425bn.