By: MarkJ - 8 February, 2010 (8:07 AM) - Score: 1526 - Fixed Line Broadband

BT Wholesale has confirmed that its 21st Century Network (21CN) based Wholesale Broadband Connect (WBC) product, which can deliver download speeds of up to 24Mbps via ADSL2+ technology, is now available from over 730 exchanges around the UK. 24Mbps products are thus available to half of the country's homes and businesses.

The WBC service crossed BT's "iconic 50% threshold" in mid-January 2010, ahead of schedule, albeit still several years behind key unbundled rivals, such as Be Broadband , TalkTalk and Sky Broadband . Be Broadband in particular was the first to start offering ADSL2+ based 24Mbps services way back in 2005 and can today reach 70% of UK homes.


WBC ADSL2+ is by no means a "next generation broadband service" as BT states, in fact such a claim is almost comical given how far behind they are on its introduction and deployment. However WBC is not purely an ADSL2+ platform and indeed the operators new up to 40Mbps Fibre-to-the-Cabinet ( FTTC ) broadband service is also designed to use it.

Looking ahead, BT are now on track to deliver copper-based WBC services to around 14 million end-users by the end of March 2010 – and – "subject to market demand" – its intention is to increase this to 20 million by Spring 2011.