Broadband provider BT has now more than 15 million customers in the UK as the company claims that it signed up the 15-millionth customer to its high-speed network previous week.

Figures revealed by the telecoms giant show that more than 5 million connections have been made through BT retail, while the remaining via other companies.

As many as ten years after broadband was first introduced in the UK, there are now around 19 million homes with broadband connections. Virgin Media is serving 4.2 million customers over its cable network. The UK is enjoying a higher take-up rate than many other developed economies, including Germany and the United States.

As per some estimates, there have been on average 5,000 new broadband connections made every day since August 2002.

Speaking on the topic, BT strategy director Olivia Garfield said, "Broadband Britain has been a success story with widespread availability, low prices and high take-up."

Meanwhile, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed data that shows that the number of people using mobile broadband in the UK has jumped over the last one-year period. The official figures suggest that 45 per cent of online consumers used mobile devices, like a smartphone, laptop or palmtop, to surf the web over that past one year, as compared with 40 per cent in the previous year.

BT also announced that it would invest additional 2.5 billion pounds to bring higher-speed broadband to 66 per cent of the UK households and businesses.