Posted: 08th May, 2009 By: MarkJ
ISP BT Business has confirmed that it intends to introduce faster broadband download speeds of up to 20Mbps (1Mbps upstream) during the summer, with 40% of Britain's businesses being covered by the end of 2009. Existing 8Mbps (ADSL MAX) customers will be offered the chance to upgrade at no extra cost, provided they agree to a new 12-month contract term.
The "
new" service speed will be delivered via BT's 21st Century Network (21CN) and somewhat delayed ADSL2+ (WBC/WMBC) technology, which is theoretically capable of reaching speeds up to 24Mbps.
John Strutt, General Manager of BT's Business Voice and Broadband Products, told
PC Pro: "
The technology does go a little faster [THAN 20Mbps], but after all the tests we've done, we've said let's get a bit of honesty into it."
BT also confirmed that consumer grade up to 24Mbps broadband services will start to crop up from more BT based ISPs later this year, probably as a result of its delayed managed (WMBC) ADSL2+ variant becoming available via wholesale channels. However there is nothing revolutionary about ADSL2+. Many unbundled ISPs , such as Be Broadband ( O2 ) and Sky Broadband ( BSkyB ) , have had similar products in the market for years. BT is being forced to play catch-up.
Still, the operator will be hoping to regain some ground, albeit only a small amount, later this summer when trials of their new next generation Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) broadband services begin. These will initially deliver download speeds of up to 40Mbps and upload performance of up to 10Mbps to existing premises.
BT has hinted that pricing for FTTC services, which could be offered via a mixture of different package speeds, will be "
very close" to that of existing products. Sadly the full commercial rollout of FTTC won't begin for another year. BT also suggested that bonded versions of its FTTC might help it reach similar speeds to that of Virgin Media's recently announced 200Mbps pilot (
original news).