Sky Broadband secures over one million customers

BSkyB’s Sky Broadband service has passed the one million customers mark.

The company acquired Easynet in October 2005, marking its move into broadband and telephony services, as well as satellite TV.

BSkyB subsequenty re-branded Easynet, and launched Sky Broadband in August 2006.

For the year to June 30, 2007, BSkyB gained 716,000 broadband customers, becoming the fastest-growing broadband provider in the UK.

Carphone Warehouse added 701,000 customers over the same period, while BT Broadband added 691,000.

BSkyB claims to have added 259,000 customers in the three months to June 2007 alone and says it is connecting a new broadband customer every 40 seconds.

BT added 146,000 broadband customers during the quarter, putting it in second place, while Carphone Warehouse/AOL was third with 126,000 and Tiscali and Virgin Media each added 50,000.

However, while soaring demand is good news for BSkyB, customers are facing long waits for connection.

Prospective Sky Broadband customers have to wait an average of more than three weeks before they are connected.

This is a problem across the industry, with regulator Ofcom receiving an average of 180 complaints a week about long waits for broadband connection.