NTL is offering cut-price broadband content in a bid to entice its Net punters to sign up to faster broadband services.

Even though NTL insists its 150Kbps service is broadband, it seems it's just not "broadband enough" to handle this content.

"In theory they [150K customers] would be able to sign up to this service," admits an NTL spokeswoman.

But it would be much better with NTL's 600K and 1Mb service, admits the cableco.

So, NTL hopes its dial-up and 150k punters will upgrade to faster, more expensive services.

Its "Broadband Plus" package - which it describes as a "premium broadband content bundle"- is designed just for NTL punters. Available from next week and costing £3.99 a month, the cableco reckons this will "help boost broadband sales to the mass market".

The package includes material from the BBC, MTV as well as games. NTL reckons that if punters had to buy this stuff separately it would set them back around £30 a month.

In a statement, the company said: "NTL will use Broadband Plus as an acquisition tool to attract new customers as well as encourage existing 150K broadband and dial-up customers to upgrade to its higher speed broadband services."

Punters signing up before 1 March 2004 will get Broadband Plus free for the first three months. ®