O2's home broadband push is getting results

O2’s home broadband push is already achieving results, with 72,870 new customers added in the third quarter – 18% of the entire fixed broadband market.

O2 appears on track for its previously-stated target of one million customers by the end of 2010.

The operator had the second highest number of home broadband additions after Sky, beating market leader BT (69,000), Virgin Media (50,000) and Carphone’s TalkTalk and AOL (34,000).

Dunne said the poor experience of many consumers from other providers had been a critical factor in attracting them to O2. ‘People’s expectations in the sector are very low and we’ve already got a strong reputation [with our customers] for high quality experience.’

O2 has been relatively late in pushing home broadband after buying broadband provider ‘Be’ in June 2006 for £50m.

Dunne said: ‘Sometimes we get criticised for being slow but we wait until we can launch a high-quality proposition. Everything we do is as a customer-led business. We are not a product-led business.’

O2’s broadband base now sits at 267,000, after a total of 196,000 customers were added throughout the year.