AOL shows UK broadband hand

AOL is entering the UK's ADSL market - and it's not cheap.

The ISP is kicking off with monthly subs of £34.99, but is sweetening the deal with a cut-price £25 modem offer until July 15.

AOL is charging upto £10 a month more than rival broadband ISPs. But the new service will have exclusive multimedia content from the Time Warner part of the AOL empire. It will be interesting to see if AOL can get away with charging premium prices for purportedly premium content.

The surprise is that AOL has taken so long to throw its hat into the UK broadband ring. Granted, AOL never hurries about anything - and it has 1.7m subscribers in the UK alone. And on the whole, punters don't change their ISPs too often. But is AOL being complacent - broadband is a massive inflection point for ISPs to navigate through. ADSL certainly gives BT - remember the only incumbent telco in any major European economy not to have market leadership in Internet access - a very good chance to claw back market share. ®'