Competition between the fixed telecoms suppliers has developed rapidly since the early 1990s.  Although BT's share of telephone lines is static at around 82%, its overall share of total fixed telephony revenues is now only 69%.  Roughly 50% of UK households - some 12 million homes - can now choose their direct-to-the-house fixed link telephone provider.  This compares to virtually no choice some 10 years ago.  Business users in metropolitan areas now have an extremely wide choice as competition has driven prices down and quality up.

In the year to end March 2002:

• customers spent over £13 billion on telephony;
• the number of fixed lines increased by 1% to 35.7 million;
• call volumes from fixed telephones grew by 18%, mainly as a result of an increase in dial-up Internet traffic;
• dial-up internet use increased by 53% during the year and by March 2002 it accounted for just less than half of all fixed line traffic; 
• average prices fell by over 5%. There were a total of 24.9 million residential lines, which accounted for 70% of the total number of fixed lines.

An increasing number of indirect access services are now available, offering consumers very low prices for calls.  For example, 2.5 million homes now use indirect access or "carrier pre-selection services" for some or all of their calls.  There are now 12 million homes connected to the Internet.  The current number of broadband users is 2.5 million and is growing fast, increasing by 35,000 per week.

The Fixed Networks Team within the DTI are responsible for the following: -

• ensuring the framework of telecommunications in the UK encourages the development of a competitive market for communications services,
• the development of new networks,
• business relationship management and the sponsorship of international, national and local fixed link operators.
• monitoring of the telecommunications sector with particular reference to fixed telecommunications operators;

The DTI was previously responsible for establishing the statutory framework for regulating fixed-line operators.  On 25 July 2003 a package of EU Directives on Communications came into force changing the regulatory regime under which the whole of the telecommunications sector would operate in future.