Posted: 08th Feb, 2010 By: MarkJ


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.
BT Wholesale’s Director of Broadband & Content Services, Sian Baldwin, comments:
"Already more than 550,000 end-users are enjoying our ADSL2+ copper next generation broadband service, with 20-30,000 more being added each week.
Running over BT’s 21st Century Network, WBC offers greater control, choice and flexibility as well as higher speeds. It supports the growing demand for high-speed access to a range of online services, including television, gaming and multiple voice over internet protocol (VoIP) services."
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.