BT has announced plans for a mass market broadband portal and high-speed Internet service to be available from July. The service, branded Btopenworld, will be aimed at consumers, small businesses and teleworkers. Based on ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) technology, it will provide high-speed, always-on access to the Internet and a range of personalised applications through consumer and business broadband portals.

Btopenworld (the new name for the company's internet business) has also signed strategic partnerships with four companies, including IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Apple and Intel, to provide customers with broadband-ready PCs with BTopenworld pre-installed.

BT says that the advent of broadband and mobile technology is creating a second 'Internet wave' - faster, more cost-effective and compelling. Over 35,000 people have registered interest in the service. Ben Andradi, chief operating officer of BTopenworld, said: "Research shows that a broadband customer will stay on-line four times as long as a narrowband customer and spend nearly three times as much on e-commerce."

The broadband service has the following key features:

• Always on - providing customers with instant access at all times.
• High speed - enabling customers to download information at between 10 and 20 times the speed of a conventional modem.
• Content rich - providing customers with audio and video rich material designed specifically for the broadband portals.
• Localised and personalised - providing customers with information and content tailored to their preference and requirements.
• Delivered seamlessly over multiple devices and technologies - providing customers with access to their chosen content and applications through their WAP mobile phone, TV or PC.
  

Of course, all this connectivity comes at a price and just when regular internet access is being offered almost free. The consumer and single business user services will cost £39.99 per month (inclusive of VAT).

The multi-user business offering is priced at £99.99 per month (plus VAT) with a £260 (plus VAT) installation fee. Customers can connect directly four PCs with up to 10 e-mail addresses. They can connect more PCs using their own cabling.

Availability, technology & support

The new services are being offered in line with the national ADSL roll-out. BT says the network already covers 26 per cent of the UK population and that by the middle of this year, one in three UK households and businesses - and more than half of the UK's current Internet users - will be within exchange coverage.

At launch, BTopenworld will be offered in: Aberdeen, Ashford, Basingstoke, Belfast, Birmingham, Brighton, Cambridge, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Coventry, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hastings, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford, Portsmouth, Swindon, Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells, Winchester and York.

ADSL is added to an existing telephone line by attaching advanced electronics to both ends; at the local exchange and at the office or home. It enables the customer to use BTopenworld without affecting the use of the line for telephone or fax calls.

Services will be enhanced later this year. Initially business users will be offered 512kbps single user (USB) and multi-user (Ethernet) access. From the autumn customers will also be offered higher speed (1 or 2Mbps Ethernet connections) access and business users will also be offered a local area network (LAN) product.

BT says it will provide "end to end customer service", including arranging for the ADSL network equipment to be installed by specialist broadband BT engineers and offering an optional PC configuration service. All support and service will be managed all day, every day by a state-of-the-art Operational Support System.

Potential customers can pre-order BTopenworld on-line at www.btopenworld.com.