Broadband, as marketers are no doubt about to tell you, is about to get broader. Most connections in the UK are based on a standard called ADSL (asynchronous digital subscriber line). Be prepared for ADSL2 and ADSL2+, which are similar but faster. That's the way the technology's going to go - faster, more speed, less hasta more vista...
Or is it? Interestingly, the broadband internet service provider community doesn't seem to think so. BT, for example, is reluctant to talk about selling "naked" broadband (no, nothing to do with adult websites, they just don't want to sell anything without adding value).
Others agree that they want to provide more services. Then there are the unaddressed issues surrounding geographical coverage and when the UK will really be able to get at the technology.
To put it another way: the broadband industry is still in its infancy, and loads of people have different ideas on where it's likely to go. The current picture is relatively clear; BT is the clear market leader in terms of the numbers of subscribers at around 65%, according to Theresa Wise, media partner at Accenture.
They'll be pushing services around their broadband offering "things like application service provision (ASP)," she says. "I know everyone's been talking about it for ages but this time it's more likely to happen." ASP is a model of computing in which, instead of loading complex applications on to a computer, you log on to them from somewhere else.
The possibility has been raised numerous times, but in the absence of ubiquitous broadband connections, the plumbing hasn't been there to make it happen.
The main market growth, she believes, will be in the small-to-medium enterprise (SME) area. "The consumers have broadband and at the corporate end, they [the ISPs] are fighting each other already." In terms of services, she says that antivirus and security are already big among internet providers, and that people are making noises about "voice over internet protocol" (using the net to make calls instead of your phone, thus saving a small fortune).
BT is among those who believe the small customers as well as the larger ones will want increasing amounts of services. "The first wave of broadband has happened. This was when people saw the benefit of fast access and always-on internet and they've made good use of it," says Tim Evans, marketing director of BT Business.
"What we're beginning to see in our own research, and that of the Department of Trade and Industry, is customers who don't see any value in that, they need a reason to do it."
This is why BT and others are now declaring they don't actually want to sell a plain internet access service through broadband any more (one could of course speculate that no business actually wants to get involved in a service in which the only possible differentiator is price).
Evans says 40% of his business customers now take applications as well as a connection. "It tends to be security services, firewalls and antivirus measures for example," he says. The online back-up service Datasave is also going down well with that particular community.
NTL's head of SMEs, Brian Mackow-Maguire, concurs entirely with the idea that the connection-only market is unlikely to grow much. NTL's angle is different from its competitors, however, since it offers telephone services and internet rolled into one, and is poised to start waiving the connection fee under a new promotion.
"Telecommunications aren't in the top 10 things for most SMEs to sort out - people offer them a discount if they subscribe to a service and they don't bother because by the time they've subscribed and noted the bill they've spent more than the £10 they'd have saved."
Others take yet another view. Tiscali, for example, has noted that there is little on offer either in terms of price or quality aimed at the micro-business and self-employed person, and MD for small business, Stephane Huet, confirms that a tailored service will emerge shortly. Most of the target market will be using standard domestic connections at the moment.
"Business customers want security and they don't want contested lines," he says - contested lines being the standard domestic ADSL connection that's shared between a group of houses, so if your neighbour joins the same service your own connection slows down.
By this time, readers in rural areas will be jumping up and down shouting: "What about us?" Although geographical coverage has improved, there is no doubt that just over 80% of coverage for broadband services isn't good enough if you happen to live or work somewhere that lacks it.
Increasingly, local people are taking matters into their own hands. The South East England Development Agency (Seeda), for example, has funded the village of Kingsclere to be made fully wireless. The councillors had already located FDM Broadband as a supplier.
There have been glitches but not many; PR executive Stephen Fleming says his office is in one of the tricky areas for reception but his connection has worked perfectly since installation three weeks ago.
Steve Coppins, broadband manager for Seeda, says the difficulties have been more associated with getting permission to put the transmitters up - the one in the local church, for example, is there on a trial basis only for the moment.
Nevertheless this is only one of a series of local initiatives based around wireless technology, and funding from Seeda and its counterparts is available where there is a requirement.
The other approach is to offer broadband as part of a business premises service rather than in a residential village. Upton Magna Business Park is six miles to the west of Shrewsbury and opened with the installation of wireless equipment from Alvarion, whose director, Rob Mortimer, confirms the installation took a colossal two days.
The company became involved after the estate agent looking to let the business premises on the site realised the lack of broadband was hampering sales. It allows the businesses moving into the site to enjoy speeds of almost four times that of a standard broadband connection. For this reason he believes that even when the premises can get a standard broadband connection they won't want it.
And this is where the disagreements start. Andrew Muir, principal consultant at communications analyst Mason Communications, believes the local broadband services are a great way of getting people involved, but he suggests they will be short-lived.
"At the moment, they're only there because they're not subject to any competition. Usually they're funded by subsidy, so if that goes away it's difficult to see how the figures will add up." And once an area can receive broadband in the ordinary manner, there will be no need for a subsidy.
Ultimately, as long as they can get it the customer is satisfied. Even when they can't, geographical coverage is improving, although you can wave whichever cynical digit you wish at the people claiming it's going to be 100% by 2005 unless BT gets a load of cash from somewhere.
The difficulty facing the suppliers is that broadband is essentially plumbing for computers. The tricky bit is that the ISPs still have to compete with each other.
"I do wonder whether it's to do with suppliers or to do with the customer," says NTL's Mackow-Maguire. "It's probably to do with us."
Curiously in the face of such an apparently confused picture, the upshot is likely to be positive for the customer.
Inevitably there's going to be a whole load of marketing spiel about how good one offering is against any other, which is going to be fun and entertaining and part of the usual thrust of business.
The serious and hopefully beneficial result will be an even harder push to bring broadband to areas in which it is unavailable, and an increased focus on firewalling and antivirus, so no matter what provision a business customer uses, they will be sure it's safe.
The hardware
Many smaller traders and self-employed people will have a broadband connection already but they may not be prepared for ADSL2 and ADSL2+. This, explains Ian Walsh, sales and marketing director for the manufacturer Westell, will be because of the hardware issues. "eighty-eight percent of ADSL connections, particularly in the consumer area, are based on USB - we see that changing radically." Westell is among the companies offering ethernet connections, in which a computer's networking port is used rather than the generic USB port.
The advantages are many, he claims: many of the routers on offer have their own firewall and will therefore offer protection against hackers. The general reliability is also better, with less degradation of signal than will be noted through a standard ADSL modem.
