Wanadoo UK is poised to leapfrog BT in consumer broadband telephony subscribers.

The France Telecom-owned ISP claims 40,000 active users of its Wireless & Talk broadband telephony service which it launched six months ago. BT has signed up 50,000 broadband users to its BT Communicator service, since launching its VoIP service in 2003.

Which makes Wanadoo confident its VoIP customer numbers will soon outstrip BT. "Around 45 per cent of all of our new broadband customers are taking up Wireless & Talk and on average callers are making more than 150 minutes of calls every month," said an "over the moon" Wanadoo UK boss Eric Abensur.

"This usage represents a significant portion of a typical household's monthly calls and as services like our own develop, we are confident that usage of VoIP telephony services will continue to grow."

Wanadoo's rush to talk about VoIP comes as Dixons confirmed details of its mass-market VoIP service Freetalk. With its distribution and marketing clout through Dixons and PC World stores, to name but two, both Wanadoo and BT willl have to keep an eye on this up-start.

Separately, Wanadoo UK is offering new punters 2 meg broadband for £14.99 a month claiming it offers "fantastic value for money". ®