Broadband connectivity has been available in the UK since the late nineties. The only broadband suppliers to offer affordable high-speed connections were a small number of cable operators. It was in the year 2000 that the household Internet connectivity considerably changed from dialup to broadband. High-speed Internet connections were worth a lot of money for the business users around that period. Broadband was not only expensive, but it was also less available for usage in homes or small business. Since the connections were only provided by the cable operators, the users had to be residing in areas within the reach of the cable operators' network. The entire scene of internet connectivity changed in the late 2000 when British Telecom (BT) introduced its DSL products to the market. Instead of holding on to the retail rights for DSL, it created a wholesale channel programme that permitted the Internet Service Providers (ISP) to sell the BT generic DSL products again.

The number of Internet users in the UK broadband industry has been increasing extraordinarily together with the demand for broadband. As a result, there has been an increase in the number of broadband providers. With the increase in supply and the capacity, there has also been a rapid increase in the competition. The terms and conditions that the broadband services offer can turn out to be quite beneficial. The broadband has become a buyers market as its supply flourishes. This in turn has made it easier for the users as they can change their providers if they are not contented with the service that their existing provider has been delivering. The commonest type of technology that most of the broadband connections in UK use is the ADSL. It is a different type of DSL which is provided by using BT's telephone network. This covers about 99.9% of the grounds in the UK. To get connected with the broadband connection using ADSL it is not necessary to sign up with BT though. Few of the top ISPs by subscriber number in UK are BT Broadband, Virgin Media, AOL, Tiscali, Orange Broadband and Pipex.

Before choosing a broadband provider, it is very important to find out about the quality of the customer service. It is practically quite impossible for the broadband service providers to assure services that are absolutely free of problems but the ratings for customer satisfaction should be viewed over speed to enjoy smooth and uninterrupted service. Another important issue that arises while choosing a broadband service provider is the pricing. There are certain companies that provide inexpensive or free service with TV or mobile phone contracts, for example, Sky or Orange. Broadband is never or very seldom charged on the amount of time spent online. The charging scheme is usually either one of the two: It can either be based on the speed of the connection or it can be based on the amount of usage, where the charging is done by the quantity of data that has been transferred.