Virgin Media customer Mark Bush is celebrating ten years of broadband access, it has been reported.

Back in 2000, he became the UK's first broadband customer, after ditching his dial-up internet connection during NTL's initial cable broadband trial.

The BBC explains that Mr Bush – who had pre-registered for the service – began receiving broadband during a 12-week test period prior to the official product launch.

He had sought faster internet speeds and greater reliability to support his Frugalsworld.com flight website, and chose to adopt broadband at the earliest possible opportunity.

"It was pretty impressive in the early days, with having the whole pipe to myself," he told the news provider.

While early broadband users received speeds of 512kb, Virgin Media is in the process of rolling out a 100Mb next-generation service - highlighting the rapid pace of development in the industry over the last decade.