BT is planning to quadruple basic broadband connectivity
speeds to 8mbps nationwide.
The company will start trials next month in Cornwall, south
Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and London to test its ADSL
broadband Max service. The trials will then be expanded gradually
over the following months and BT expects to roll out a national
8mbps service from spring 2006.
BT recently quadrupled the basic broadband connectivity speed
from 500kbps to 2mbps, and the latest planned jump will see BT
reach the theoretical top ADSL speeds it mentioned when it first
launched broadband services in 2000.
Cameron Rejali, managing director for products and strategy at
BT Wholesale, said, “BT is committed to ensuring that everyone
benefits from the broadband revolution, whether they live in
valleys, villages or city centres.”
BT’s move is essential if it is to stay competitive against the
newly merged Telewest and NTL cable companies. They are already
offering users speeds of over 8mbps for no extra charge on existing
broadband subscriptions. Cable & Wireless subsidiary Bulldog is
also building a nationwide 8mbps broadband network.
BT has also started trialling optical fibre broadband services,
where strands of blown fibre are fed through tubes to connect
businesses to ultra-high bandwidth services using existing
telegraph poles. This method avoids BT having to dig optical fibre
trenches to the user and slashes the cost of delivering optical
services in “the last mile”.