Demon has taken advantage of a ruling by telecoms regulator, Oftel, giving ISPs greater freedom with their DSL infrastructure.

Oftel ruled that Thus is allowed to connect directly to the BT network and redirect traffic onto its own network. Up to now, ISPs have offered BT's service and repackaged it. Today Demon launched its first "direct" products, a new range of products aimed at broadband-hungry business users.

The ISP reckons the new products are a cut above other broadband services, offering an improved service somewhere between ADSL and leased lines.

Demon Premier Express (pizza anyone?) as it is called is available to punters within 3.5km of xDSl-enabled exchanges in central London.

The service offers lower contention ratios - either 5:1 or 1:1 - compared to shared usage ratios of up to 50:1 with BT's ADSL service.

Prices start from £100 a month.®