Super-fast home broadband access 'will soar in 2011'

Householders thinking about using VoIP services for their phone calls may be interested to learn the number of homes with super-fast broadband access is set to rocket in 2011.

That is according to high-speed internet analyst Point Topic, which predicted the figure will grow from 600,000 in mid-2010 to more than six million by the end of this year.

It explained this increase will be made possible by a jump in the number of BT telephone lines able to carry super-fast broadband from the current level of 45,000 to 600,000 - about three per cent of the total - over the next 12 months.

To achieve this dramatic rise, BT will need to average 9,000 new connections per month in the first half of the year, followed by 14,000 every four weeks after that, the company added.

Point Topic chief analyst Tim Johnson is optimistic: "We're sticking our neck out a bit with this. You have to assume that BT can achieve a big increase in its super-fast rollout rate during 2011."

This news comes just weeks after culture secretary Jeremy Hunt declared the government's intention to provide super-fast broadband throughout the country by 2015.