Telewest is to bring broadband and digital TV services to punters in Birmingham, the cableco announced today.

The upgrading of its existing analogue network in Birmingham is to begin next month and continue through to April next year. It will be done on a "street by street basis" with areas including Bourneville and Kings Norton earmarked for digital treatment.

Following the upgrade, an extra 60,000 homes within Telewest's footprint will be able to get digital services.

However, that still means that around 340,000 homes are still chugging along on the cableco's analogue system in "small pockets" of Liverpool, West London and Crawley, among others.

Currently, Telewest's cables pass around 4.9 million homes in the UK. Of those, around 4.5 million could get digital services.

Telewest has around 1.72 million punters. ®