Business communications provider Viatel has given a cautious welcome to BT's announcement that it will expand the planned reach of its superfast broadband network from 40% of UK homes to 66% by 2015. However it has warned businesses "not to get too carried away" because issues of patchy availability and variable speeds are unlikely to vanish overnight.


Viatel also points out that hybrid Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) or even true fibre ‘superband’ Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) are still subject to the same problems of contention that plague shared networks during busy times today.


The ISP notes that while Quality of Service (QoS) will be available on these networks in the future, at present this is often not the case and all businesses need to be aware that line speed is not the only key factor to consider.

Viatel, which works alongside BT, is however confident that these issues will all be overcome. But national or even patchy local availability could still be a problem for a few years yet.