UK ISP Brightview has almost 10,000 broadband punters, up from 3,600 in August.

The company has a stable of service providers including Madasafish, Freenetname, and Waitrose.com and has 300,000 net access users in toto. It was bought in August for £25m by communications services outfit Invox Plc

Publishing its iresults for six months to the end of December, Invox yesterday said that it's "inevitable that dial-up business will dwindle over the years" as more people ditch narrowband for broadband.

This is why execs are making "strenuous efforts" to establish Brightview as a significant presence in the broadband marketplace, helped no doubt by Madasafish's recent brush with the ad police over its "Oi, Churchill, noooooo!" ad.

The company is targeting its existing 300,000 dial-up customers to switch over to broadband "as soon as possible" as well as trying to tempt new users to its service.

"Our experience to date has been that converting existing dial-up customers to broadband is proving much easier, and more profitable, than recruiting new users from advertising," the company said in a statement.

But it warned that "while broadband customers are potentially a very valuable asset in the longer term, in the short term they contribute relatively little to profit, owing to the initial costs of connecting a broadband customer and supplying a modem".

In the six months to 31 December 2004 Invox made a profit of £4.45m before goodwill amortisation and tax and includes a £1.26m contribution from Brightview. ®

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