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The company claims that everything is on schedule, and expects to launch fast Internet connections to home users by the beginning of August.

Reports that BT has been unable to find enough trialists to fully test the system have been met with incredulity by the Internet-using public. Regular readers have sent us virtual bags of mail asking to have their details forwarded to the companies running the ADSL trials (please, no more!) So how does BT justify what many perceive as a frustrating and unnecessary delay?

Simon Gordon from BT's press office told us, "We don't see it as a delay.

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The whole thing has been blown out of all proportion. We've always said it's going to follow the business services."

BT launched its business and video-on-demand services last Thursday.

"We've been trialing with ISPs since April. In May we wrote to ISPs asking, can they give us more users? - they weren't giving us enough end users to be able to fully test it. They responded well to that and we're in the final stages of testing."

It seems that the potential problems are not so much to do with the technical workings of the Internet connections but with the ordering system. The so-called "flood testing" that BT is undergoing is to make sure that high volumes of users will be able to subscribe without the sort of hitches that 0800-style free ISPs seem to encounter on a regular, four-weeks-after-launch basis.

So far around 500 exchanges have been ADSL-enabled, a figure BT claims covers roughly 35 per cent of population (8 million households and businesses).

Now BT is saying it is in the final throes of testing and is confident of introducing a consumer ADSL service by the beginning of August - assuming no last-minute problems uncovered by the test.