The original British free ISP said it would enter British Telecom's ADSL trials in Manchester and London. In preparation for new services to be added through ADSL adoption, Freeserve (FREE) signed on 20 content providers.

ITN will provide news, Virgin Records will broadcast videos and live concert webcasts, peoplesound.com will offer MP3 and multimedia downloads, @Jakarta will hawk its game downloads, and Music Choice will provide digital radio and interviews.

Test participants will receive a permanent connection which registers speeds up to 512 Kbps at a monthly fee of &3163;49.99.

"The ADSL trial reinforces our position at the forefront of Internet service provision," said John Pluthero, Freeserve's chief executive. "ADSL will form an essential element of our broadband proposition as we gear up to provide Freeserve customers with high speed access to rich content from the summer."

As of last month, Freeserve registered 1.675 million active accounts.

Freeserve today also announced a deal with DPEC to offer online training courses for consumers and small businesses. It will join as an affiliate to the DPEC WebShare Partner Program.