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The additional exchanges will add more than 50 towns and cities 'to the broadband map' by the end of May, said a BT statement, making ADSL available to 16 million households, more than two thirds of the population. 'Gaps' in existing services will also be filled, it said.

BT's decision to extend ADSL coverage follows what it calls, 'a reassessment of demand in all exchanges based on the new costs and wholesale prices that were announced by the company last month.'

Paul Reynolds, chief

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executive of BT Wholesale, added, 'People have told us, in sufficient numbers, that they want broadband services and the advantages of always-on, fixed cost, fast access that they can offer.'

Reynolds also said that BT will be adding extra capacity in the already-enabled ADSL exchanges, 'to meet the significant increase in demand that resulted from the price reductions made by service providers as they passed on our wholesale cuts.'

BT has started reviewing 500 further exchanges to see which might be upgraded next.

A list of the 100 exchanges to be upgraded by May can be seen here.

In a separate staement, BT Group has set out its new three year strategy, and placed broadband at its heart. Ben Verwaayen, BT's chief executive, announced that the company intends to have 5 million connections by 2006 and to help towards this target plans to launch a '"direct" access only broadband product' that will connect users directly to the Internet without going through an ISP.