Future imperfect: A UK broadband retrospective

A new hope

By 2005, we were starting to get excited about BT's 21CN, or 21st Century Network. This, we were told, would replace those clunky DSLAMs and the Colossus broadband backhaul network with shiny MSANs, and make the whole of BT's core network super efficient and IP-based.

Are you ready to get switched on? Some of BT's customers are still waiting – click for a larger image

There was a website called SwitchedOn to let you find out when your exchange would go live. A decade on, there are still plenty of customers – around 10 to 15 per cent, according to ISPs I spoke to – connected to the old “twentieth century” network.

Still, by then BT wasn't really the only game in town, as LLU (local loop unbundling) was taking off, especially in built up areas. Companies like Be, Wanadoo, Bulldog and UK Online were installing kit in some exchanges that offered a lucky few speeds of as much as 24Mbps, while BT was trialling a more modest 8Mbps.

Around this time was also the start of the worst excesses of "Up to marketing," with some ISPs doing their best to gloss over the limited availability of the higher speeds, leaving users stuck on a BT-based service while they awaited investment in their local exchange.

With instant “replay” of popular shows like EastEnders, plus video on demand, HomeChoice was a glimpse of a connected TV future

Ten years on, there's a little more honesty about the speed you'll get. But not that much. The middle of the decade also saw the start of persistent complaints about the hassle of moving from one ISP to another, as well.

Alongside the spread of LLU, there were other interesting moves, including BSkyB investing in Easynet, gaining them instant access to a big group of customers. With H.264 receivers starting to appear, I wondered then if it might find a way to provide its subscription channels to non-satellite users. It took rather longer than I imagined, but that's more or less what NowTV does.

As far back as 2000, a notable TV and internet combo was HomeChoice – available in parts of London and Stevenage, run by VideoNetworks. Its set top box provided an internet connection as well as “replay TV” for some of the most popular shows. Despite promises to expand, it never reached critical mass, and ended up being swallowed by Tiscali.

"Get out of my pub!" Originally known as iMP, the BBC's catch-up service used peer to peer technology

Auntie, meanwhile, was running a trial of something called the Interactive Media Player, or iMP. Using peer-to-peer sharing, it probably annoyed as many people as it delighted, and by the time the BBC iPlayer launched for real, it was a straightforward streaming service.