Demon Internet is to start offering broadband ADSL Net access from next month, the company formally announced today.

Prices for the always-on service start at £49.99 a month - a tenner more than the equivalent product form BTopenworld.

Despite this price difference (it's staggering to think that BT is actually cheaper than its competitors for once) Demon is confident its service will attract users.

A spokeswoman for Demon was unconcerned about the price differential. We wouldn't have announced these prices if we thought they weren't competitive, she said in a round-about way.

Elsewhere, BTopenworld has denied its timetable for rolling out ADSL has slipped. An email circular sent out last week said: "We will shortly be launching the multi-computer Ethernet product... the single-user USB launch will follow later in the summer."

A spokesman for BT said the single user USB option was always going to follow the launch of the Ethernet product, which is geared more specifically to business users.

Full details of Demon's new services should be available at its Web site, although they weren't when we had a look this morning. BTopenworld's bumf is available here. ®