HAMPSHIRE based cable giant NTL is to extend its reach into ten million UK homes with a £65m investment plan.

The company is to install equipment in about 300 BT telephone exchanges, enabling it to offer broadband and video services to two million homes.

NTL, which employs 1,300 people at its Winchester site and thousands more at bases in Southampton, Guildford and its Hook headquarters - currently pipes services to eight million houses. The move is NTL's most significant venture since taking over Cable and Wireless Communications' UK cable infrastructure in May 2000.

NTL says it receives 170,000 inquiries every three months from customers outside of its networks; it now hopes to be able to do business with many of these.

Making use of BT's "last mile" copper connections from exchanges to people's homes is a cut-price alternative to rolling out the costly cable network.

Still, bosses caution the expansion could take two years, although 15 per cent of it could be up and running in the first quarter of 2005.

The move follows a similar recent venture by rival CWC, which aims to access a third of homes in the UK.

Commentators hailed the NTL move as a sign of renewed confidence from the company following its recent move back into the black after years spent struggling with multi-billion-pound debts.

It is also a boost for staff who still have fresh memories of large scale job losses.

"It's a good move and it makes people feel more secure," said a member of NTL's Hampshire staff who did not want to be named.

"During the chapter 11 bankruptcy it was a worrying time. There were a lot of people being laid off and it wasn't comfortable. Now it is a different place and it is run a lot more like a serious business."