RMC the building materials group undergoing a price-fixing inquiry in Germany is believed to be moving closer to selling its Great Mills

RMC, the building materials group undergoing a price-fixing inquiry in Germany, is believed to be moving closer to selling its Great Mills DIY chain. RMC, the building materials group undergoing a price-fixing inquiry in Germany, is believed to be moving closer to selling its Great Mills DIY chain. Reporting full-year results yesterday, Peter Young, chief executive, said the 95-store DIY business "is not a core part of what we do" RMC had been approached by interested buyers, he said. The move would allow RMC to focus on its core business of supplying of heavy building materials to the international construction industry.Industry sources pointed to Home Depot of the US as a possible buyer.Analysts estimate the business will fetch £250m to £350m.Mr Young, who retires this year, to be replaced by his deputy Stuart Walker, said the latest raid by German anti-cartel officials was a complete surprise.This week three RMC businesses in the south-west of Germany were raided. RMC was fined £34m last year after a similar raid on its units in another part of Germany.RMC reported group pre-tax profit for 1999 up 15 per cent to £304.5m, before exceptionals, on turnover of £4.7bn, up from £4.41bn in 1998 The company's shares closed up 88.5p at 848.5p..

Not long ago the copper wire linking a house to British Telecom's local phone exchange and on to its national network was used only for delivering voice calls. The same network has now been pressed into use to provide internet access. However, by summer the conventional capacity of BT's copper-wire network is to be substantially enhanced, creating a new industry that could generate £5bn a year by 2007. Not long ago the copper wire linking a house to British Telecom's local phone exchange and on to its national network was used only for delivering voice calls.

The same network has now been pressed into use to provide internet access. However, by summer the conventional capacity of BT's copper-wire network is to be substantially enhanced, creating a new industry that could generate £5bn a year by 2007. BT will lift the veil on this new world next month when it completes the first phase of a £250m upgrade to provide high-speed ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) service. By June, BT local exchanges serving six million households in cities from London to Glasgow will go live with ADSL. By 2002, ADSL will be available to two-thirds of Britain's 25 million households.Yes Television is one of more than 300 firms jockeying to offer ADSL services. Huw Price-Stephens, technical director, said: "Services are delivered off a common technology platform that allows you to select Web, broadcast television or interactive video content, or mixtures of the three."We don't want people to see their TV as a segmented service.

We want all forms of interactive and conventional TV content to be seamless in the eyes of the consumer."The first benefit of ADSL will be a dramatic increase in Net access speeds.Modem technology now limits access to a poky 50 kilobits a second; fine, perhaps, for text-oriented websites with limited graphics, but unsuitable for higher bandwidth applications combining extensive graphics, video feeds and television channels.The early version of ADSL will offer Web access at 500kbs, boosting surfing speeds by a factor of 10. Before long, industry watchers expect access speed to double to 1 megabit per second (mbs) and then 2mbs. At the higher access rate, consumers will be able to order movies and other video programmes from high-speed servers.Unlike pay-per-view movies on Sky Box Office, or cable's Front Row service, movies on ADSL can be ordered at any time and paused, rewound or forwarded. Videonet, a private firm that has raised £80m in venture capital finance, has set up video-on-demand services in 1,500 homes in north-west London. The service offers feature films, music videos, children's and lifestyle programming and archived TV programmes, including ITN news, on demand.Simon Hochhauser, Videonet chief executive, expects its library of 800 films to grow to more than 5,000 in two years. Videonet offers themed TV packages from £5.99 a month, and films range in price from £1.50 to £3.50.