BT has revealed that over 77% (574,000) of Birmingham and the Black Country's telephone lines have now been upgraded to deliver its 21st Century Network (21CN) platform. The improvements include support for BT's Wholesale Broadband Connect (WBC) service, which can deliver 'up to' 24Mbps broadband connections via ADSL2+ technology:


However it's frustrating to see that BT continue to shop their new ADSL2+ (24Mbps) services alongside terms such as "next generation broadband", which can cause confusion. ADSL2+ has in fact been around in the UK for many years via several unbundled ISPs; BT is playing catch-up.

Similarly ADSL2+ is, contrary to BT's statement, technically an improved version of what already exists. We feel that to confuse older ADSL services with true next generation wireless and fibre optic networks is potentially very misleading.

True next generation networks are capable of far faster speeds (50Mbps, 100Mbps, 1000Mbps etc.) and most will use some degree of fibre optic networking. Similarly they will also be able to deliver a greater stability of speed, even for those living further from their local exchange.