Millions of UK households could potentially benefit from
improved
broadband performance, using a self-install filter developed by
BT Wholesale.
The patent pending innovation, called the "I-Plate" (meaning
interstitial plate), filters out the electrical interference in the
home caused by televisions, lighting and home wiring, which can
often slow down an individual's broadband speed and affect the
stability of their connection.
By fitting an I-Plate to the master phone socket found in the
majority of UK homes, most customers should experience some
broadband performance benefits, said BT.
BT's trials of the I-Plate have shown that filtered lines can
deliver a range of
broadband improvements, including faster speeds, a more stable
broadband connection and slight improvements in broadband
performance over "long lines".
To be eligible for an I-Plate, customers need to have a BT NTE 5
master socket and extension wiring in their home. BT estimates that
seven out of ten UK homes have this type of master socket and home
wiring, bringing the potential benefits of the I-Plate to about
nine million households.
BT Wholesale will be making the I-Plate available to its UK
communications provider customers from today. Consumers with the
suitable socket and home wiring will be able to obtain the product
from their communications provider.
As this is a new broadband product from BT Wholesale,
communications providers are expected to take time to start
offering the I-Plate to their consumer and business customers, BT
said.
In a benchmark survey of 36,000 lines, BT found that filtered
broadband lines typically showed a speed increase of up to 1.5Mbps,
with some lines showing speed improvements of as much as 4Mbps.
Higher speeds cannot be guaranteed in every case as the level of
electrical interference varies greatly from line to line.
However, BT said the survey also found that the I-Plate can
improve the stability of the broadband connection, so some
customers can experience broadband performance benefits even when
line speed is not noticeably increased.
Because I-Plates help with both broadband line speed and
stability, they are particularly useful for supporting high
bandwidth applications such as TV and video, allowing for faster
downloads and better quality streaming.
The I-Plate can also extend the geographical reach of a
broadband service by around 10dB. This means that homes which are
some distance from their telephone exchange may receive an improved
service, while others that were previously just beyond the reach of
a broadband service may now be able to get one.
Cameron Rejali, managing director of products and services at BT
Wholesale, said, "Most consumers are unaware of the impact that
faulty TVs, fluorescent lighting and home wiring can have on their
broadband performance. The I-Plate can help solve this, depending
on the level of electrical interference within the home, delivering
faster speeds, greater stability and bringing high quality IPTV to
more consumers."
The I-Plate can be easily installed by consumers, avoiding the
need for an engineer visit. The BT NTE 5 master socket can be
easily identified by the horizontal split in the face plate and BT
logo.
All consumers need to do is simply unscrew the face plate, clip
the I-Plate in place in the socket and replace the face plate over
the I-Plate.
The I-Plate works by filtering electrical interference created
by TVs, lights and other everyday electrical equipment in the home.
This interference is picked up by the bell wire, which forms part
of the extension telephone wiring that runs around most homes.
The bell wire is a third wire which runs alongside the pair of
wires that carry the telephony and broadband signal. It acts like a
giant antenna picking up interference, which then bleeds over onto
the broadband signals because of to its proximity.
This can cause significant loss of broadband line speed and
stability. The greater the number of telephone extension
sockets/the more electrical equipment in a home, the greater the
problem can be.